


Letting Go

by biaswreckingfics



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Idols, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst and Drama, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Brother-Sister Relationships, Byun Baekhyun & Park Chanyeol Friendship, Complete, Drama, Drama & Romance, EXO - Freeform, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Female Characters, Female Protagonist, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Idol Byun Baekhyun, Male-Female Friendship, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, POV Female Character, POV Original Character, POV Second Person, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Protective Older Brothers, Reader-Insert, Siblings, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Strangers to Lovers, The Author Regrets Nothing, Wordcount: 30.000-50.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 33,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29127165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biaswreckingfics/pseuds/biaswreckingfics
Summary: Baekhyun had fallen for his best friend years ago, but when her and Chanyeol become a couple, Baekhyun must find a way to get over her. Will the new girl in town help him move on? Or will he push her away? Find out in Letting Go.(This is a spinoff from Forsaken, but is a standalone fic.)
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun & Original Character(s), Byun Baekhyun & Reader, Byun Baekhyun/Original Character(s), Byun Baekhyun/Original Female Character(s), Byun Baekhyun/Reader, Byun Baekhyun/You, EXO Ensemble/Original Character(s), EXO Ensemble/Original Female Character(s), EXO Ensemble/Reader
Kudos: 13





	1. Part 1

“Y/N, come look at this.”

You hear your coworker's exasperated sigh and wander over to where she is, finding her by a table of folded shirts.

“Look at what these assholes did. I swear, it’s like people forgot what manners were.”

Glancing down, you see what she was complaining about. On the top shelf, tucked in between some shirts, were food containers still holding leftover noodles and broth, along with empty candy wrappers.

“What kind of asshole wastes food?” You comment in the foreign language.

Korean wasn’t your first language, but you worked damn hard to learn it. Moving to Korea wasn’t something you ever imagined doing, but when your brother’s company moved him here, you tagged along. You loved your home, but you always craved something more. More adventure and spontaneity. A part of your soul needed to travel and, though Korea never originally came to mind, you jumped at the opportunity.

Learning the language was hard at first, and your pronunciation was far from perfect but you were able to communicate with people well enough to live a life here. Your coworkers have helped you with your pronunciation, along with slang and swear words, which were obviously not taught in lesson apps.

“I’m so glad I taught you that word.” Jia laughs.

You smirk at her. Jia was the first person you met in Korea, besides your boss. Upon meeting, she saw your frazzled face and anxious expression and immediately took you under her wing. For the first month, you were Jia’s shadow. She showed you the ins and outs of your job, as well as good places to eat and hang out in your area. You liked Jia a lot, and she grew on you fast. She was sassy, fun, and caring, and the two of you became fast friends.

“Did you watch the show I told you about last night?”

Besides helping you at work and in the neighborhood, Jia liked to give you crash courses on many things. TV, music, culture. She once told you she liked to make sure you were immersing yourself into the Korean culture as much as you could.

Nodding your head, you carefully pick up the abandoned containers and turn towards her. “I liked it, and the lead was majorly cute.”

Jia nods enthusiastically. “He’s the next biggest thing, and he’s so dreamy…”

While Jia begins filling you in on everything you need to know about the actor, the chimes of the front door being opened bring your attention to the customer walking in. You meet his gaze and bite back a smile while Jia continues her rant.

“Um, Jia…”

“Just wait until I show you Song Joong-ki! He’s one of the most attractive males – “

The man who had approached Jia from behind clears his throat, causing Jia to immediately close her mouth and turn toward him.

“Besides my loving boyfriend of course!”

Jongin cocks an eyebrow at Jia, his mouth twitching with hidden laughter.

Jia turns back towards you, loudly whispering, “Y/N! Why didn’t you tell me he was there?!”

“Don’t try to put this all on her.”

You laugh outright, adjusting the trash in your arms, as Jongin continues to pick on Jia.

You had met Jongin multiple times because he was always coming into the shop to talk or hang out with Jia. Gradually, you became friends with him, but you wouldn’t consider yourself close. You were more like acquaintances. You didn’t know much about him, only that he was a dancer and a really good one at that. He often wore a face mask, but when he didn’t, he nearly blinded you with his smile.

Today, you were blessed with that smile, and you took note of the fact that he was very dressed up. You had grown used to seeing him in his usual comfy sweats. Looking at him in jeans, a dress shirt, and tousled hair, you wondered how Jia didn’t pass out right on the spot.

“Wow, Jongin, you clean up nice!”

“You have no idea.” He winks at you.

You pause your next words, not sure if he was referring to something sexual or not. Jia’s laugh had you fearing that was exactly the case.

“On that note, I’m gonna go back to work, on the opposite side of the store.”

As you walk away, their laughter follows you. The chimes of the door were the only thing stopping you from saying anything to them. Glancing up, you see three more men walk in. You recognize two of them as friends of Jongin, but you had never seen the third man before.

“Jongin, we have to head back before hyung has a fit.” The tallest one, Chanyeol, says.

You had met Chanyeol and his girlfriend a couple of times. His girlfriend was Jia’s best friend and was also someone who had been very kind to you when you first came to Korea. You liked the couple, they were cute and friendly.

“He’s already starting to worry about us being in public like this.” The one you remember as Kyungsoo says.

You furrow your eyebrows, his words causing you confusion. Looking over at the trio, you wonder what he meant by “like this”. They weren’t wearing anything weird. They were dressed just like Jongin.

As you continue to stare at the men, you meet the eyes of the third man, the only one you didn’t recognize. His mouth slowly curves into a smile that leads to a chuckle.

“You look confused.”

Your eyes widen with the realization that you were caught staring at them, well, mostly him. He was shorter than Chanyeol. His brown hair covered half of his forehead and the tips of his ears. His brown eyes curiously stare into yours, making you realize that you were still staring.

“Hey, Y/N!” Chanyeol’s greeting pulling you out of your silent appraisal of the stranger.

“Hey, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo.” You meet the third’s eyes long enough to see recognition flash in them.

“Oh! You’re the one Jia’s been helping out!” He says while walking over to you and holding out his hand. “I’m Baekhyun.”

Tentatively shaking his hand, you give him a shy smile before you pull away. Man, this guy has some soft hands. When you were finally able to drag your eyes away from him, you glance quizzically over at Jia.

“I hope she’s said nice things.”

“Well, she hasn’t said anything bad yet.” Baekhyun teases you.

“Oh, stuff it, Bacon.” Jia gruffly says to him.

You laugh at their grumbling until a sudden throat clearing behind you makes your whole-body freeze. Was this karma for laughing when Jongin did it to Jia? Glancing over at Jia, you see her wide eyes on a figure behind you.

“Are we having a party?” Your manager asks.

“Just introducing Y/N to some more people, sir…” Thank god Jia was quick on her feet. Your body was still frozen in slight fear that you were about to be yelled at. Again.

“On your own time, girls.” He grumbles.

You immediately turn and bow at your manager as he walks away, Jia doing the same. When she turns back around, she begins kicking the boys out.

“Alright, you guys have to clear out.”

“That’s fine. We came by to make sure you were still coming over tonight…” Jongin says while looking over at his girlfriend.

“Tonight? Oh… I forgot… I was going to show Y/N my hideout place…” Jia replies, sounding somewhat disappointed.

You can tell by her demeanor and tone that she wanted to hang out with Jongin and his friends, and you suddenly felt weird about taking up her free time with her friends.

“We can do it another night! It’s fine, I don’t mind.” You say brightly.

Jia looks at you, and you can see the silent argument she was having with herself. One half of her wanted to take you up on that offer, but the other half of her refused to bail on people last minute. Just as you were about to tell her you really were fine with it, Chanyeol speaks up.

“Y/N can come too!”

Your head snaps to the right, taking in the taller man with surprise. You then glance over at Jia just long enough to see that her eyes had lit up with excitement.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to intrude. Jia and I can hang out another night.”

A part of you felt like Chanyeol was just inviting you because he felt bad about you being ditched, and you didn’t want anyone’s pity. Plus, you have never spoken to these guys outside of the shop. You weren’t one of the shyest people you had ever met, but you certainly weren’t one of those outgoing ones either.

“You wouldn’t be intruding. We’re inviting you…” Jongin tells you, making you feel slightly better since he was the one that you knew the best.

Looking back over at Jia, you see her nodding her head along with Jongin’s words. When her eyes meet yours, you can see the steely determination in them.

You knew that look.

It was a look you had become well accustomed to over the past couple of months. You knew, at that point, there was no way you weren’t going with them.

Mentally sighing, you begin to talk yourself into it. You did want to make more friends, and the man standing next to you had definitely caught your interest. What could be the harm in going?

“You should come…” The man that had just invaded your thoughts says, making a feeling of surprise shoot through you.

Baekhyun was probably just being nice, like everyone else. You knew everyone was waiting for your answer, and you didn’t want your manager to come back and yell at you, so you quickly agree.

“Great! You can head over with Jia later, and just so you’re aware, there will be a few more of us there.” Jongin winks at you again. Did he have something in his eye all the time? Or did he really like to wink?

After you give them your answer, the four boys leave the store. Turning to Jia almost immediately, you ask, “How many more will be there?” You could feel your anxiety begin to grow. What did you just get yourself into?

Jia looks at you and shakes her head. “I’m beginning to think you’re hopeless.”

“Why?” You ask in confusion.

“This just tells me that you haven’t been doing the research I told you to do.”

“Did you just hear yourself? Research, Jia, research.”

She sighs. “Have you listened to any of the music I sent you?”

You guiltily glance at the floor, because, while you have listened to some of the groups she has told you about, you mostly focused on the dramas instead. “I mean… a little…” Snapping your head up you say, “Wait, but what does any of that have to do with tonight?”

Jia turns and begins walking away from you. “You’ll see!”

What on Earth did that have to do with tonight? Were they going to quiz you on your music knowledge or something? Shaking your head, you get back to work and think about the boy with the soft hands.

A few hours later, you hear a knock on the door of the apartment you share with your brother. Knowing it was Jia, you throw out an “It’s for me!” and run to the door. When you open it, you start to greet Jia, but you pause when you notice her taking in your outfit.

“There’s hope for you yet! I thought I was gonna have to talk you out of wearing sweatpants.”

“Jia, I’m not gonna wear sweatpants to meet new people!” You respond, rolling your eyes. Even if they are extremely comfortable.

“Still, I’m impressed,” she says while walking back down the hallway and away from your apartment.

Her words cause you to glance down at your outfit. Jeans, sweater, sneakers. If she’s impressed by this, what do I look like normally?

On your way over to wherever it was you were going, Jia begins to warn you about the night.

“I have to prepare you. You’re going to find out something about my friends, and you have to keep it a secret. You can’t tell anyone, not even your brother.”

You look over at her like she’s crazy. “What are they? Vampires? Is this a cult?” You joke.

She gives you a sarcastic smile. “Ha ha, yeah, that’s exactly it. No, you crumb. It’s nothing like that.”

You lean back in the passenger seat and stare out of the window. When the heck did crumb become an insult? And what was Jia talking about? What was so secret about her friends?

Her words made you uneasy, and you could feel the butterflies in your stomach start whirling. You were already nervous, but Jia’s warning made you start to worry. What were you about to discover?


	2. Part 2

When you arrive at the building Jia had driven you to, you don’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It was a tall, plain concrete structure like every other building in the area. Maybe Jia is messing with me, you think. You were new. Maybe this was some type of hazing thing they did to new friends. Or maybe I befriended a bunch of weirdos who really think they’re in a cult.

Jia’s knocking on the door brings you back to the present, and you stare at it in anticipation. When it opens, a familiar face comes into view, flooding your body with relief. Maybe I put too much thought into the weirdo idea, you mentally scold yourself.

“Hey, jagi. Hey, Y/N.” Jongin greets you as he opens the door wider, letting you pass through.

“Hey, Jongin,” you reply as you walk past him, letting the two lovebirds kiss in the doorway.

The second person you are greeted by is another familiar face, calming your inner thoughts even more. Chanyeol was standing in the hallway, next to another tall male you had never seen before. He had shorter, black hair and a slightly mean expression on his face. You assumed he had a “resting bitch face” just like you and that he wasn’t actually a mean person, basing your opinions off of the other boys.

“Y/N, welcome to our, kind of, home. This is Sehun. I don’t think you guys have met before.”

Sehun gives you a small smile, and you instantly knew that your impression of him was right. “Hey.”

“Hello,” you smile back.

Your mind finally catches up with Chanyeol’s words. This was “kind of” their home. You wonder what that means, but you feel Jia and Jongin come up behind you before you can ask, so you let it go and turn towards them.

“Well, let’s go into the living room. There are a few more people for you to meet.”

You take in Jongin’s words and follow behind the couple, with Sehun and Chanyeol trailing you. How many more people could there be? You’ve already met five of them.

As you turn the corner, you’re met with a large group of people looking at you. Oh... that many. As you look at all the faces, you recognize Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol’s girlfriend, but there were four other faces you were completely unfamiliar with. You slowly wave a hand, not sure if this was a bowing situation or not. Thankfully, you are met with a couple of smiles and a few hellos.

“Hey, Y/N!” Chanyeol’s girlfriend smiles at you from the couch.

“Hey!” You were grateful she was the one who broke the silence because you knew it wouldn’t be you. The thought of speaking in front of these people you barely knew was not appealing to you at the moment.

“So, I think there are a few people you haven’t met yet…” Jongin comes over to your side and points at Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. “You know those two. Next to Kyungsoo is Yixing.” He says while pointing at a cute man who flashes you a dimpled smile. He then turns to the three who were sitting on the other side of the group and begins pointing at them in succession. “Next to Baekhyun is Junmyeon, Minseok, and Jongdae. Guys, this is Y/N.”

After a couple more smiles, you begin to notice everyone staring at you. At first, you attempt to brush it off because you were just as new to them as they were to you, but the longer the silence stretched, the more awkward it felt. Why isn’t anyone speaking?

You turn to the right and look up at Chanyeol, not being able to handle the awkwardness anymore. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

It was like a trance was broken as you said those words. Everyone immediately looked away, a couple of them rubbing the back of their neck or their arms. Jia laughs from your left, drawing your attention to her.

“Seriously. Do I have something on my face?”

Your words cause a couple of people to chuckle, and you feel yourself starting to become annoyed. One of your biggest pet peeves was asking a question and not getting an answer, and you were beginning to question if you were going to get one.

Looking over the group, you notice one staring at you still, neither laughing nor smiling. Junmyeon, you think, recalling his name. The two of you held eye contact until he finally speaks up.

“You don’t seem surprised… Do you know who we are?” He asks you thoughtfully.

All you could do was stare at him and then look at Jia, silently asking if he was being serious. When Jia stares back at you with her arms folded across her chest waiting to see what you are going to say, you turn back to look at Junmyeon.

“Am I supposed to know who you are?” Chanyeol and Baekhyun laugh at your response, while Jia sighs from your left.

“Y/N! Now I know you haven’t been listening to the music I gave you!” Jia nearly shouts at you, her hands swinging down to rest on her hips.

Turning towards her exasperatedly, you respond, “Jia, what does that have to do with anything right now?!”

Your words put smiles on everyone’s faces, including Junmyeon, but before you could become irritated you hear the one named Jongdae speak.

“You really don’t know us! This is great. I think we were worried about nothing.”

His words make you realize that they aren’t messing around with you. They are being completely serious. You glance around the room, taking in the nine men. They were all stupidly good looking, but nothing was coming to mind. You try to think of all the things Jia has been trying to teach you ever since you met her. Jongin was a dancer, and she kept mentioning music…

“Oh! You guys are a dance crew or something!”

“Oh, good lord! I can’t take this anymore.” Jia gives you a look, letting you know she thought you were dumb. “Y/N, they’re EXO.”

EXO? EXO… you remembered that from something… Jia’s eyes widen in disbelief the longer you think. Oh!

“K-Pop! You’re the really big K-Pop group!” You clap your hands together once, excitement briefly going through you when you remember the name.

Jongin, who had been silently dying of laughter next to Jia, looks over at her and says, “Jia, I thought you’ve been helping her learn things…”

“I thought so too!” She replies, looking at you accusingly.

You hold your hands out in front of you in an attempt to calm Jia down. “I’ll admit… I’ve been focusing more on the shows than the music, but I did check out some of it!”

“Have you listened to us?” Chanyeol asks curiously.

Nodding, you say, “Ko Ko Bop, Monster, Lotto. I remember watching those... The videos are really cool, and the songs are pretty good too. I like them!”

“Well, thank you,” Junmyeon responds.

They all begin staring at you again, making you feel uncomfortable. If they don’t quit doing that…

“Why are you all staring at me again?” You pause, then it finally clicks. “Do you guys think I’m going to attack you and ask for your autographs or something? Because I’m not going to.”

You laugh at the situation, knowing there were probably millions of girls who would die to be in your place right now. “I mean, no offense, but I didn’t even recognize you… So, I think it’s kind of obvious I’m not some crazy fangirl or anything. Plus, I see Jongin all the time, and he seems like a normal human being, so I’m sure the rest of you are the same.” You finish, shrugging your shoulders.

They all take in your words, but Sehun is the one to finally speak up, a joking smirk gracing his face. “I can’t tell if I should be offended or thankful.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” You smile back at him.

“You didn’t disappoint at all. In fact, I’m quite impressed so far. Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable.” Junmyeon responds, indicating to the seat in front of you.

As you sit down, Jia makes a comment. “I’m a little disappointed. I thought you’d have at least an interesting reaction.”

You look back at her and see a small pout on her face. Laughing, you say, “Want to start all over? I can come up with a better reaction this time.”

Jia gives you a droll stare, causing the others to laugh.

“I have a feeling you’ll fit in here,” Minseok says, giving you a small smile.

Chanyeol’s girlfriend answers him. “Oh, she’ll fit in just fine.”

Getting to know the rest of the boys was different than what you expected. Knowing EXO was a big deal in Korea, you figured they’d be stuck up or rude, but they were nowhere close to either of those. They were polite, kind, and fun, which you should’ve figured out from your talks with Jongin, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo at the store. You were just relieved that they weren’t crazy like you had started to believe on the ride over and that it wasn’t some type of hazing ritual. They actually had a real secret that you now needed to help them keep.

“So, this explains your reaction at the store...” Baekhyun says while sitting down next to you. “You really had no clue who we even were…”

“I feel like I should apologize, but I don’t know why.” You laugh, almost feeling bad that you didn’t recognize them.

“No, it’s actually refreshing.” He responds while giving you a small smile. “So, how do you like Korea so far?”

“Honestly? It’s not what I expected, but I’m pleasantly surprised.” You pause. Did you just diss Korea in some way? You immediately start to backtrack, knowing the country focuses heavily on respect. “Not that I thought it was a bad place or anything!”

Baekhyun laughs. “It’s okay. I knew what you meant.”

You couldn’t help but stare at him. The smile that was gracing his face made him infinitely more attractive, which you didn’t even think was a possibility. It made his eyes light up, and he looked almost carefree.

“So, Baekhyun, what do you do for fun? I mean... do you have time for fun? ...Of course, you have time for fun. What kind of question is that?” You stop and take a deep breath, cringing at whatever just came out of your mouth. “I’m rambling, and I’m going to shut up now.”

Baekhyun stares at you for a moment and then lets out another laugh. “Do you ramble when you’re nervous?”

Thinking about it, you couldn’t recall a time where you had a conversation with someone as attractive as him, so you mutter, “Apparently.”

“To answer your question, I like to chill out at home and relax, or play video games, when I have time.”

“That makes sense.” You nod.

Before you realize it, two full hours had gone by while you were talking to Baekhyun, and you managed to not embarrass yourself the whole time. Other members came up and talked to you for a little while, but they would eventually drift away, leaving you with Baekhyun all over again.

You surprisingly learned a lot about him. You learned that he had an older brother, like you, and a fear of heights. He told you that he was closest with Chanyeol, but you figured that out on your own by watching their interactions. The most outrageous thing he told you was that he hated cucumbers.

“Excuse me? What did cucumbers ever do to you?” You look at him like he had insulted your family.

Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t like them. The taste, the texture. It’s gross.”

“I love cucumbers.”

He sighs and shakes his head. “I really thought this friendship would work, but I don’t think I can associate with you anymore.”

“Good, the feelings mutual, bacon.” You say while leaning back into the couch with your arms crossed.

He stares at you with wide eyes before he lets out a shocked laugh. His laugh had grown on you over the past couple of hours. By the end of your talk, every time you heard it, your heart fluttered a little in your chest.

“You two look like you’re getting along well over here,” Jia says, coming up from your right.

“You should be careful, Jia. I’m thinking about getting rid of you and adding her to our group instead.”

“Shove it, Baek. There’s enough room for both of us in this group.”

At their words, you blush a little. You knew Jia liked you enough to keep you around but hearing that Baekhyun did made your stomach do weird things.

“So, what’re you two talking about over here?” Jia asks.

You roll your eyes. “His irrational hate of cucumbers.”

“Yah! Excuse you – “

“Carry on with your boring conversation.” Jia interrupts him with a roll of her eyes and walks away.

So, you did. Jia might’ve thought it was boring, but you had a really great time talking to him. The longer you two talked, the more you picked up on all of his little quirks, and the more you came to appreciate them.

By the end of the night, you knew you knew you had developed a crush on Baekhyun, but you could also see Baekhyun had someone else on his mind. Someone who happened to be in a relationship with his best friend.

Throughout the night, you had noticed Baekhyun’s eyes straying to the other side of the room multiple times. At first, you thought he was watching the other members since there was a lot going on. You found out that wasn’t the case when you realized his eyes kept going to the same person, Chanyeol’s girlfriend.

Oh, Baekhyun, no. You had been in that position before, liking someone you couldn’t have. It was miserable, and you felt for him.

Curiously, you glance over at her, wondering if she had any idea Baekhyun was harboring a crush on her. The more you watch her and Chanyeol, you knew she didn’t. You had only known her for a month or so, but you didn’t get the impression that she was the type to shove something like that in someone’s face, especially Chanyeol’s best friend.

All you knew was that you had a crush on a boy who had feelings for someone else.


	3. Part 3

“I’m assuming you went home last night and checked out EXO’s videos,” Jia says to you by way of greeting.

You turn to your coworker, who had arrived to work two minutes before the shift started, with a guilty expression on your face. “I may have checked out a few more videos of theirs…”

Jia stares at you, silently waiting for you to own up to the truth. “Okay, so I watched all of their videos. I was curious... and it was pure research.”

When Jia continues to stare at you without saying anything, you try to remind her of the tasks she gave you. “Hey, your word, not mine.”

“Mhmm… and what did you think?” She asks slowly.

“They’re really good. I like them... It’s incredibly weird that I was in the same room as them and that you’re dating one of them. By the way, how did that happen, and why does everyone hate Wolf?” You ask as you walk over towards the counter to get ready for the day. Jia was trailing behind you while she listened to the questions you were throwing at her.

“Let’s just not talk about Wolf, and remember how I use to dance with Jongin?” When you nod your head, she continues. “Well, I use to train at their company.”

Your head snaps back towards Jia. “Wait, really? You used to train at SM?”

Her eyebrows raise to her hairline when you throw out the name of the entertainment company that EXO was a part of. That definitely wasn’t on the list of things she gave you to learn.

“Okay… so I did more than watch their videos… By the way, NCT? Totally here for them.”

Jia nods in agreement. “Yeah, I trained there for a few years, but they didn’t think I was good enough to debut, and I couldn’t be a trainee forever, so I left. I remained friends with a lot of other SM trainees, though.”

“Oh… I’m sorry…” A gloomy feeling flows through you. Though you only met a couple of months ago, you had become fast friends, and you knew she would be a major part of your life while you were in Korea. To hear that her dreams were taken away saddened you.

Jia shrugs her shoulders. “I’m over it. Back to EXO, though. Did you pick a bias?”

You stop what you are doing and lean on the counter, looking at her in confusion. “A what?”

“A bias. It’s your favorite member of the group. The one your eyes are always drawn to, even if you try to look away.”

You don’t answer her. You may have just learned what a bias was, but you definitely already had one. Turning away from the counter, you walk over to a stack of boxes you had to stock and quickly begin putting the product on the shelves.

Jia immediately follows you. “So, you do have a bias. That’s pretty fast, but considering you’ve met them, I’ll let it go. Who is it?”

Again, you stay quiet, refusing to answer. You weren’t sure why, but you didn’t want to tell Jia about your crush on Baekhyun. Maybe because it was still such a new thing, or maybe it’s because you’ve only talked to him twice.

“It’s okay, you can stay quiet. I already know it’s Baekhyun.” Jia nonchalantly says while turning away from you.

Her words cause you to drop the stack of shirts you had been pulling out of the box onto the floor. You cringe, knowing you had just confirmed her suspicions.

She quickly takes in your actions and whirls on you. “I knew it! You’re totally crushing on Baekhyun!”

“I am not.” You immediately defend yourself.

“Stop. You’re a terrible liar.”

Knowing she was right, you sigh and reach down to pick up the shirts you dropped. “I don’t even know him. I can’t like him.”

“Y/N. You two sat on the couch and talked for like three hours. I’ve known him for nearly 8 years, and I don’t even think I’ve had a conversation with him for that long.”

Standing back up, you dust off the shirts and say, “It doesn’t matter anyway. He likes someone else.”

Jia looks at you in bewilderment. “Who on Earth could he…” You watch as realization dawns across her features. “Oh, Baekhyun… I thought he was over her.”

“So, it isn’t just my imagination.” Jia’s words confirm your suspicions about Baekhyun liking Chanyeol’s girlfriend.

“There were a lot of things that happened before she and Chanyeol got together. One of them being Baekhyun confessing to her and kissing her.”

“He kissed her?!” You shout, your eyes bulging in shock.

Jia nods and begins filling you in on the drama that had happened between the three of them and another girl named Daeun, who you’ve never heard of before. By the time she finishes, you feel like you had been on a roller coaster ride that you thought was never going to end. Good lord, that was a mess, you thought.

“He told her he was over her, so she could move on with Chanyeol, but apparently he was hiding how he really felt…”

“How long ago did they get together?”

Jia thinks about it. “It’s been just over four months now.” That means he confessed two months before you even came to Korea.

The more you think about it, the worse you feel. You wonder how Baekhyun feels watching and spending time with Chanyeol and his girlfriend... When you begin remembering a similar situation you had gone through back home, you pull yourself out of those thoughts. At least you were able to get away from your issues, unlike Baekhyun.

Continuing with work, you go and grab more boxes from the back. You couldn’t figure out how Jia kept talking you into bringing out the heavy boxes. She was going to get the next load, whether she liked it or not.

Just as you were about to turn the corner and tell her, a familiar voice stops you. You instantly recognize the voice as Jongin, and though normally you would never eavesdrop on your friend’s conversation, you hear your name in the discussion.

“– We can with Y/N!” Jia whisper shouts.

“Don’t. Jia, don’t you dare drag her into this mess.”

“It wouldn’t be dragging her!”

Jongin takes a deep breath. “Jia, please leave it alone. Not only for Y/N’s sake but for Baekhyun’s sake too.”

Your mind was reeling. What the hell were they talking about? What did Jia want you to do, and what did it have to do with Baekhyun? Leaving your spying spot, you come from around the corner in time to see Jongin walking out the front door.

Walking up behind Jia, you ask, “Are you guys alright?”

Jia jumps at your words. “Yeah, we’re fine. Why do you ask?”

You didn’t want to let her know you had been listening to her conversation, so you say, “He just seemed, kind of, annoyed when he left.”

“Oh, he’ll get over it.” Jia was visibly relieved that you hadn’t heard their conversation, even though you did.

You were torn between wanting to ask Jia what they had been talking about and not wanting to. If you asked, you would not only seem nosey but untrustworthy from spying on their private conversation. If you didn’t ask, though, it was going to keep sitting there in the back of your mind... Deciding to go with the latter, you stay quiet and let it go. For now.

Over the next few days, you notice Jia inviting random EXO members to come hang out with the two of you whenever they were free. You already knew something was up, but any lingering doubts were squashed when you noticed Baekhyun was always in the groups she invited. That’s when you caught on to what Jia was attempting to do. She was trying to hook you and Baekhyun up.

A part of you wasn’t okay with what she was doing, but another, more selfish part, liked hanging out with Baekhyun. Your crush was blooming, and you were mentally bracing yourself for the future heartbreak that was bound to happen.

There were moments when you were hanging out with him, that you could almost pretend that he could like you in the future. He was always sweet to you, helping you with work, or being so friendly that it could seem like he was “flirting” with you, but you knew that wasn’t the case. Call it intuition, but you were pretty positive Baekhyun’s feelings toward you weren’t romantic.

Things continued like this for a week. Jia pushing you and Baekhyun together every chance she could find. It started to truly annoy you now, and you weren’t the only one. You lost count of how many disapproving stares Jongin had given Jia. He didn’t like what she was doing, but he knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t going to stop.

You will give her one thing though, you and Baekhyun had become good friends. The two of you would randomly text each other throughout the day, sharing pictures, stories, and whatever else popped into mind.

“So, dinner tonight?” Jia’s words snap you out of your thoughts.

“Mmm… yeah, sure. Who’s all going?”

“Everyone!”

You turn to look at Baekhyun, who was standing by the clothing rack you had absentmindedly been fiddling with. From the look on his face, you could tell this was the first he was hearing about it.

“We are?”

Jia rolls her eyes at him. “Yes, Baek. Didn’t Jongin tell you?”

Baekhyun’s eyes slide over to Jongin with curiosity. “No?”

“That’s because – “

Jia immediately cuts Jongin off before he can say anything that would contradict her. “He didn’t get a chance to!”

You watch Jongin as he stares at Jia with an unreadable look on his face. Glancing over at Baekhyun, you could see confusion in his eyes. When he looks over at you, you shrug your shoulders at him.

You knew Jia was up to no good, but you also knew that there was no stopping her once she started. Plus, who were you to turn down food? Maybe after whatever she was planning at dinner happens, she will move on from her mission of getting you and Baekhyun together.

“Well... alright. Food sounds good.” Baekhyun says, unknowingly agreeing to whatever Jia had in store for him.

“Perfect!” Jia shouts, with a little too much excitement.

Jia walks away with a pep in her step. From your right, Jongin watches her walk away, and you can feel the annoyance radiating off him in waves. He looks back at you and Baekhyun with what looks like pity in his eyes. Baekhyun misses it, but you laser in on Jongin, silently asking him what on Earth she was up to. Jongin looked torn, and you knew why. He didn’t want to go against his girlfriend, but he also didn’t like what she was doing to his friends.

You knew the moment he decided what he was going to do. He looks over at Baekhyun, and you glance over as well, noticing he was texting on his phone, and not even paying attention to the two of you. When you look back at Jongin, he mouths, “We’ll talk later”.

Unfortunately, later never came. The boys were called away, stealing your chance to talk to Jongin. All that you gathered from Jia, was to wear something cute and meet her at the restaurant she told you about.

That was three hours ago, and you only had half an hour left to get ready. When you had gotten home from work, your brother had asked for your help with something, but you didn’t think it would take as long as it had.

You quickly decide on an off-the-shoulder beige sweater, high wasted black jeans, and little black booties. You run a straightener through your hair and put on a little mascara to brighten your eyes.

In your rush to get ready, you had accidentally burned yourself with your hair straightener, leaving a small burn mark on the top side of your hand. This was about as ready as you were going to get. There was no time left to do much more.

When you get to the restaurant, you notice Jia and Jongin waiting by the entrance. Oh good, hopefully, I’m not the last one here, you thought. You find out that you aren’t when you bump into Baekhyun in the parking lot. The two of you walking together to the door.

“You look really nice, Y/N,” Baekhyun compliments you when he gets close enough, causing you to blush at his words.

“Thank you, so do you.” He had on a casual gray sweater, black jeans, and high-top sneakers. His hair was free from the beanie that was on his head earlier.

When you get to the door, Jia claps her hands. “Alright! Everyone’s here! Let’s go in!”

“They are?” You look around one more time, not seeing anyone else besides the four of you.

“Yepp!” Was Jia’s reply, as she turns around and walks inside.

Jongin tips his head up and looks at the sky. When he looks back at the two of you, he says, “Sorry, guys.” Then he walks into the building.

Sorry? What was he sorry for? Just what were you two walking into? You look over at Baekhyun, who had a confused expression on his face, as well. Maybe the rest of them were inside?

You follow Baekhyun inside and head towards the table. Looking around the restaurant, you notice it was a private restaurant, which made sense considering who you were dining with.

When Baekhyun abruptly stops walking, you walk right into the back of him. You quickly pull yourself away from Baekhyun and peer around him to see why he had stopped. You were all quiet for a moment until Baekhyun speaks up.

“Jia, what is this?”


	4. Part 4

You look at the empty table that was set for four. The only seat currently occupied was Jia’s, and her face held a very guilty expression. Then, like a light bulb suddenly turning on, it finally dawns on you what Jia was up to.

“Jia, what is this?” Baekhyun lowly asks.

“Would you believe me if I said everyone else canceled?” She replies sheepishly.

Jia had lied and said everyone was going to dinner, but really, she had set up a double date. Jongin and her. You and Baekhyun.

Everyone was silently stared at each other for a moment. Baekhyun and you were trying to process what was happening, and Jia and Jongin were too nervous to comment.

You didn’t know how to feel. You stare at Jia, wondering how you were going to get through a dinner with Baekhyun, now knowing it was a fake double date.

You slowly look at Baekhyun, wondering what is going through his mind. His face was completely unreadable as he looks between Jia and Jongin. You couldn’t tell if he was angry, confused, put off, or what.

His eyes suddenly meet your wide ones before you can look away. All you could do was stare at him, hoping he would see that this wasn’t your idea. When he slowly begins nodding his head, you exhale the breath of air you didn’t know you had been holding.

“Well, we’re here... I guess we should eat.”

You follow his lead and sit down in the seat next to him and across from Jia. Holy shit, this is awkward, you thought. There was complete silence at the table, so you took the opportunity to peek at everyone through your eyelashes.

Jia was taking turns looking at everyone. She looked slightly nervous, now that her plan was in motion, and the guilt was still etched onto her face. Jongin was looking at his menu, not raising his head to look at anyone else, and not wanting to take any of the blame for his girlfriend's actions.

You casually look to your left to see Baekhyun, sitting somewhat stiffly, almost like he was scared that if he moved too much he would bump into you. You look down at yourself, noticing you were sitting the same way, so you take a deep breath and force yourself to relax. All of you were already here, so you might as well try to get past the awkwardness. Besides, you were friends. It wasn’t like this was a blind date with random people.

“So, how was everyone’s day?”

At your words, everyone visibly tenses since you had the courage to break the silence. Jia becomes excited, taking your words as a cue that you aren’t mad at her. Jongin gradually relaxes, now that you had finally spoken, and it wasn’t to yell at Jia. Baekhyun continues to look at his menu, not making eye contact with anyone, but he does answer your question.

“Good, but if you remember, we’ve been with you two all day.”

Oh yeah… you had forgotten that they were at the shop with you two. You sigh, not knowing how to start the conversation. Luckily for you, the waitress came up and took all your orders. When she leaves, taking the menus with her, your only source of distraction goes with her.

“Okay, I’m sorry I lied, but I thought it would be nice if the four of us went out together.” Jia begins to explain herself.

“You could’ve just said, ‘Hey guys, let’s go to dinner’. That would’ve worked just as well.” Baekhyun calmly responds to her before sipping from the water glass in front of him.

“Well, we’re all here now, so let’s just enjoy it, yeah?” You say. Jongin nodding his head and agreeing with you.

Dinner goes well, and once everyone lightened up, you had a lot of fun. The four of you joked around, and they shared stories with you about wild things they’ve done over the past years. You enjoyed hearing about their crazy antics and learning about their experiences as a group. You and Jia also silently watched as Baekhyun and Jongin hotly (and weirdly) debated which fantasy movies were better, and they informed you about a charity event Jongin and Chanyeol were taking part in.

Dinner flew by, even though it was very weird in the beginning. You enjoyed spending time with just the three of them and away from the big group. You felt comfortable with them, even though you lost count of how many times Baekhyun made your heart flutter every time his arm brushed yours. You felt like a schoolgirl with her first crush, but you needed to knock it off. You were in your mid-20’s for goodness sake!

When it was time to leave, Jongin and Jia took off one way, while you and Baekhyun went the other way. As you were walking out to your vehicles, Baekhyun is the one to break the silence.

“Well, that was fun, even though Jia lied to get us here.”

You shrug your shoulders. “I mean, everything went okay in the end, and we got food, so I’m happy.”

“Food is always a good thing…”

“Mhmm. So, do you want to hang out and play some video games or something?” You ask hopefully, not noticing Baekhyun watching you out of the corner of his eye.

“I would, but there’s something I have to do at SM tonight. We’ll hang out soon though. Have a good night and drive carefully!” Baekhyun quickly says before turning away from you.

You watch as he walks away, confused by what had just happened. Why did Baekhyun suddenly seem different? He was laughing and joking inside the restaurant, but now he was acting distant like maybe he had on a front during dinner.

Also, you could’ve sworn you remember Baekhyun telling Jongin he didn’t have plans for later… Maybe something came up? Or maybe Jia’s plan weirded him out more than he let on?

You were brought back to reality by the sound of a car door shutting somewhere in the parking lot. Shaking your head, you slowly open the driver’s side door of your vehicle and climb into the seat. You turn the key in the ignition and start your engine, but before you can put the vehicle in drive, your phone dings with a message.

Jia: Dinner was great! I think B definitely has a thing for you!

You snort and stare at the phone wondering if Jia and you had been at the same dinner.

You: I really don’t think so, Jia, and please don’t do that to me again!

Jia: Oh, stop. Everything went fine.

From her perspective, maybe it did, but you couldn’t help but think something was different about Baekhyun. Maybe, I’m just overthinking things, you thought. Probably. You tended to do that.

A few days go by after the dinner, and now you know somethings up. You had known Baekhyun for less than a month, but ever since the two of you exchanged numbers, you had made it a habit to text each other every day. Even when one of you was busy, you found a spare minute to at least text the other a simple, “Hey, how are you”.

Since the dinner four days ago, you hadn’t heard a word from Baekhyun, and all your texts had gone unanswered. You assumed he was just busy with work, but you had a feeling that wasn’t the case. Jongin still found the time to stop by your work daily, usually with another member in tow.

Today, however, you were all by yourself. It was Jia’s day off, which meant you had no one to talk with while getting your work done. The coworker who was with you instead was an older woman in her 40’s, and she liked to pretend that you weren’t even there. She wasn’t mean per se, but she didn’t go out of her way to talk to you or Jia.

That is why you are surprised when you notice her come into the backroom of the store and head straight for you. You try to hide the confusion on your face as she reaches you. Maybe it was something work-related that you needed to do.

“There’s a man out there looking for you.”

You stare at her, wondering if she could be any vaguer. A man? Was it your brother? Did something happen?

“Did he say who he was?” You ask her, trying to get more information out of her.

Shrugging her shoulders, she wordlessly walks away. You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. Why is she in customer service? You put down the things in your hands and head up front to the shop. As you walk around the corner of the hallway, you do a quick scan of the shop, looking for your brother.

“Y/N.”

You jump, hearing a voice come from your direct left. Turning your head, you see Baekhyun standing next to you.

“Jesus, Baek, you scared me.”

A small smile grows on his face. “Sorry.”

You move away from the hallway, so you were no longer blocking the doorway, and turn to look at Baekhyun. You attempt to hide any excitement you feel at him being here at the shop, but honestly, it was kind of hard, especially after not hearing from him for a few days.

“What’s up?”

“Just wanted to see if you were free for lunch.” He casually asks like it wasn’t a big deal.

Lunch? He was asking you to lunch?

“Right now?” Baekhyun nods his head, confirming. “Yeah, I can do lunch. Just let me go tell my coworker.”

He nods again, and you go back to the backroom to tell your coworker you were taking your lunch. Once you’re all set, you meet Baekhyun by the front door.

“Where do you want to go?”

“We can go to the café on the corner. It’s pretty good. Have you been yet?”

You tell him you haven’t, but that this was the café Jia had recently been telling you about. The two of you take off toward the building a few spots down from yours and immediately find an empty table in the back. Once you sit down, the waitress attempts to hand you your menus, but Baekhyun stops her.

“Do you mind if I order for you?” He asks you casually.

You blink a few times in confusion. “You want to order for me?” Once he nods, you say, “Well... okay…”

You space out as he talks to the waitress. You haven’t heard from him in days, and then he randomly shows up, asks you out to lunch, and then orders for you? I guess weirder things have happened, you thought, but you had never had a guy order for you before.

“Thank you.” You say to him as the waitress walks away.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just something that I know you’ll like.”

“Oh, getting cocky now, are we?” You tease.

He starts to laugh, but then you watch his face change back to the somewhat serious look he had when he was in the store. You feel awkward at the sudden change in his expression, so you try to make small talk.

“So, how have you been the past few days?”

“I’ve been alright, how about you?”

“Not bad. Just working.”

He nods at you, and the two of you fall into another silence. You hated it. There were hardly silent moments between the two of you. In fact, you almost didn’t believe Baekhyun knew how to be silent.

“Did I do something wrong?” You blurt out, trying to understand what his deal was.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong…” Baekhyun looks down at his hands, and then back up at you. “…but I feel like I may need to clear the air with you.”

“Okay… about what?”

He sighs. “Look, I think you’re amazing. You’ve become a really good friend of mine... oddly fast actually… but… I’m not looking for anything right now.”

Once he finishes his sentence, he stares at you, waiting for your response. All you could do was stare back at him and blink, not knowing how to respond to anything he just said.

He thought you wanted to date him? I mean, I guess I sort of do, you think, but you had never given him any indication that you felt that way. At least, you didn't think you had.

“It has nothing to do with you. I’m just interested in someone else.” He adds when you still don’t say anything.

After another moment of silence, you say, “Did I do something to make you feel like I wanted to pursue something with you?”

He blinks a couple of times in confusion. “You don’t?”

You raise your eyebrows at his question, and he throws his hands up in front of him once he realizes how cocky he sounds.

“Wait, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… the date that was set up – “

“Baekhyun, I had nothing to do with that dinner,” you cut him off.

He pauses in surprise. “You didn’t?”

Shaking your head, you reply, “No, that was all Jia.”

“Oh…” He says while looking back down at his hands. “I’m sorry… I guess I just thought… I mean, I thought I was getting a certain vibe from… you…”

You don’t know where the words that come out of your mouth next came from, but you were not expecting them to come out, and you were almost just as shocked as him.

“I won't lie to you. I do have a crush on you, but I had nothing to do with that dinner. I know you don’t see me that way.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen at your admission. “You have a crush on me?”

At that moment, the waitress comes up and drops off your food. You stare at it, not wanting to look back up at Baekhyun. Why did I just admit that and to Baekhyun of all freaking people?!

“Y/N?”

You close your eyes, already regretting the can of worms you had inevitably opened, but there was no way you could take the words back. You started it, so now you might as well finish it.

“Yes, I have a crush on you.” You say, finally meeting his eyes. “But I already know you have eyes for someone else.”

Baekhyun hadn’t moved an inch since your confession, but you didn’t think he could get even more still, and yet here he was proving you wrong.

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve seen you watching her whenever we’re all together.”

Baekhyun stares at you, eyes still wide, not believing his ears. “You know…?”

“That you like your best friend’s girlfriend? Yes.”

Baekhyun looks down at his food in shock. “I thought I’ve been hiding it pretty well…”

Maybe it was your outsider’s perspective, but you didn’t know how any of them had missed the fact that he had feelings for her, and now you had made it apparent to at least two more people. “I’m not the only one who knows. Jia and Jongin know too.”

“Please, don’t say anything to anyone.” Baekhyun silently pleads, closing his eyes.

“I won’t, but you need to try to move on…”

“I know…”


	5. Part 5

“Damn it, Chanyeol! Will you leave the rack alone?!”

You turn around to see why Jia is yelling at Chanyeol and find him guiltily pushing the rack back into its place. The pout on his face resembles that of a child who had just been scolded. You bite back a grin as he mumbles an apology.

“I’m sorry, you know how I get…”

You turn back towards Sehun, the man you were previously having a discussion with, and see a giant grin on his face as he watches the older member mess with things throughout the shop.

“We better leave before hyung breaks something. Again.” He teases Chanyeol.

“That was literally so long ago, move on,” Chanyeol responds, with a roll of his eyes.

The boys begin to get up and grab their things when Jia stops them with a shout.

“Wait! Before you guys go, will you grab us lunch? Please?” She turns towards Jongin and begins batting her eyelashes at him.

Jongin scoffs lightheartedly before quickly giving in. “What do you want?”

“Y/N, let’s get lunch from the café on the corner. I know you’ve been wanting to try it.” She suggests as she turns toward you with a bounce.

“I had it last week, but it was good, so I’m fine with that.” You say absentmindedly as you turn towards Jia.

A look of confusion mixed with shock graces her face, and you begin to realize the can of worms you had just opened. “You went there without me? When?”

“On your day off, you goof.”

“By yourself?!” She asks in disbelief.

From her right, you can see Baekhyun lightly laughing into his hand. Quietly enough to not be obnoxious, but loud enough to still catch your attention. The action also causes Jia’s attention to shift to him.

“Why on Earth are you laughing?” She asks.

“Y/N didn’t go by herself. I went with her.” Baekhyun grins at her.

You wordlessly stare at Baekhyun as he messes with Jia. This was your first time seeing or hearing from him since your lunch together. You didn’t know if it was because he was embarrassed about you knowing his feelings towards Chanyeol’s girlfriend, or if he was distancing himself from you since you told him you liked him.

Why did you even admit to that, you mentally scold yourself. Over the past week, you had texted him once or twice, but you were still slightly embarrassed that you had confessed to him, so you were pleasantly surprised when he showed up at the shop with some of the guys.

“Wait, you two went to lunch together?” Jia asks in suspicion, bringing you out of your thoughts.

“Yes, Jia. That’s what friends do.” He replies with sass.

She stares at him for a moment, probably wondering why he thought he could get sassy with her like that. “Riiiight. Well, go on, get us some food.”

Jia jokingly pushes Jongin and Chanyeol through the front door, with Sehun and Baekhyun trailing behind. As soon as the door shuts, Jia whips around and looks at you.

“And when were you going to tell me you went to lunch with Baekhyun?”

You pause, holding the shirt you were about to fold in midair and make a bad joke. “Hey Jia, I went to lunch with Baekhyun.”

“You’re seriously not funny. Well, how was it? Did something happen?” She questions you as she walks over to your table.

You mean besides me confessing my feelings to him? No, not at all, you mentally reply.

“I, kind of, told him he needed to move on from Chanyeol’s girlfriend…” You quietly confess, putting the shirt back down without folding it.

Jia’s eyes widen like saucers. “I’m sorry. You what now?”

You nod. “I also may have told him I liked him…”

Her eyebrows nearly shoot up into her hairline as you drop another bomb on her. “Y/N! What the hell?! How come you haven’t said anything to me??”

“Probably because he told me he wasn’t looking for anything right now, and now we haven’t spoken in nearly a week?”

Jia stares off into the distance, processing everything you had just told her. “I think I need to sit down…. Wow… Well, are you okay?” She asks, finally looking back at you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I wasn’t surprised.” You calmy reply, trying to keep your voice devoid of emotion.

“How come you guys haven’t talked?”

You shrug your shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s just staying away from me, so I’ll lose interest?”

Jia tilts her head to the side in thought. “Is that what the friend’s comment was about?”

That was something you had been wondering yourself. You could be reading too much into it, but it sure seemed too coincidental. You glance out the window in thought, only to be met with four familiar figures heading back towards the shop.

“I’m gonna go down to the storage room and get the rest of the boxes.”

You leave before Jia can respond. Maybe putting distance between you and Baekhyun would be good. You couldn’t be hung up on someone who was already interested in someone else. Not again.

As you get to the storage room, you prop open the door behind some boxes. Jia had broken the handle a couple of weeks back, and the door could no longer be opened from the inside, which you found out the hard way. You had no desire to be stuck down here without a phone, again. Eventually, Jia would come find you, but you hated being locked in small spaces. You always had.

Walking further into the storage room, you hear someone enter behind you. “Oh, good. Jia, help me grab these.”

“Y/N?”

You spin around at the familiar voice and head back towards the door. Why the heck is Baekhyun down here, you wonder.

“Baekhyun, why are you – “. Midway through your question, you notice Baekhyun picking up the boxes in front of the door. Your question catches him off guard, causing him to turn towards you in confusion and move away from the door.

“Don’t let the door shut!” You shout a little too late.

His head snaps back towards you, wondering why you were yelling at him suddenly before a loud slam has him freezing in place.

You stare at the closed door in disbelief. How. How could the one thing you didn’t want to have happen, happen?

Baekhyun hasn’t moved an inch since you shouted, and his wide eyes immediately find yours. In a quiet voice, he asks, “Why does it matter if the door shuts?”

“Because the handles broken, and it can’t be opened from the inside.” You respond, closing your eyes and dropping down on a box next to you.

“We’re locked in here?” You nod, not bothering to look up. “Okay. That’s okay. Jia’s upstairs. She’ll come get us.”

His slightly panicked tone causes you to finally look at him. “Are you afraid of being locked in a room?”

“I can’t imagine many people enjoy being locked in a room they didn’t want to be locked in.” He replies with a hint of attitude before leaning against the shelf across from you.

“Where’s your phone? Call Jia and tell her to come let us out.”

Baekhyun stares at the wall above your head, not moving. “My phone died 20 minutes ago.”

Seriously? Seriously. This was a joke. The universe has decided to play a joke on you.

“Why are you down here anyways?”

“Jia wanted me to come get some heavy boxes?” He responds with a slight question at the end.

Heavy boxes? You furrow your brows in confusion. “What heavy boxes?”

“The ones behind the door, but I only saw the ones in front of the door…” Baekhyun slowly says, confused by your confusion.

“We don’t put boxes behind the door…” You trail off when you realize that you are taking part in another one of Jia’s plans.

“Then why would Jia…” He pauses, looking at you with sudden annoyance. “Are you saying she purposely locked us in here?!”

“Sure sounds like it.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “That’s why she was so insistent that it was me who came down here.”

You lean down and put your head in your hands. Jia was something else. It took her all of two minutes to come up with a plan to get you and Baekhyun to speak, regardless if either of you wanted to.

“So, how’s life?” You sit up and ask Baekhyun, because what else was there to do?

“Getting more interesting by the day.” He grumbles in response.

You didn’t know what to say at this point. Were you supposed to attempt to talk to someone who clearly didn’t want to talk to you? Even in this type of situation?

“Why does Jia keep doing crap like this? So, I’ll move on? This is ridiculous. If she’s trying to force me into moving on by using you, it’s not going to work.” Baekhyun suddenly snaps.

You look back down at his words. You knew he didn’t like you, you already told him that, but he didn’t have to throw it in your face like that. It was just plain rude and hurtful.

Baekhyun watches as your head falls, and you immediately look down. Moments later, his quiet words penetrate your ears.

“Y/N… that wasn’t a slam towards you. That’s not what I meant at all. What I meant was that her trying to force me is what’s not going to work. Not the person she’s using to do it…”

You nod your head but offer nothing back to him. This whole situation was painfully awkward and dredging up things from your past that you wanted to forget. Jia, please come open this damn door, you silently plead.

“Is she always like this?” You ask. Jia acted like scheming was her number one hobby sometimes.

“Jia is… creative, and yes, she likes to get into other people’s problems and attempt to solve them. While I love her, it’s annoying. It’ll happen when it happens, not when Jia wants it to happen.”

His words cause you to finally look up at him. It sounded like Baekhyun had thought this over multiple times. He knew he had to move on, and he was right that Jia couldn’t force it.

A couple of minutes go by in silence, both of you lost in your own heads until Baekhyun breaks it. “I just feel like… no one understands how I feel about the situation, and I feel like I have no one talk to about it who would…”

The irony of his words causes you to laugh before you could stop yourself. A look of confusion and irritation forms on his face.

“I really don’t see what’s funny about this.”

“There’s nothing funny. I’m laughing because I’ve been there, Baekhyun. I’ve fallen for someone who didn’t want me, so I know better than anyone what you’re going through.”

You see surprise flash across his face. “You have?... Either way, I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as falling for your best friend’s girlfriend.”

“It was kind of the same thing, actually. The guy I liked and my best friend got together. The exception, though, is that my best friend knew how I felt before she ever made a move.”

“What happened?” He quietly asks.

You sigh. “Long story short. My best friend, who I’ve known since we were five, knew I had been crushing on this guy for years. I would always talk to her about him, and she would try to get me to talk to him and confess to him, but I didn’t have the nerve to do it. One day last year, I told her I finally worked up the courage to tell him. The look of guilt on her face never dawned on me until after everything happened.

I went and told him how I felt, and he looked at me with confusion and disgust. He told me I was low for doing that to my friend. I was confused about what he meant until he looked over my head at someone and said, ‘Babe, you should find some better friends. This one just told me she liked me.’ I turned to look at who he was speaking to, and I saw my best friend standing there behind me. They had been dating for a few weeks, and she never told me. The best part is, she had never even expressed interest in the guy before.”

Baekhyun was silent for an entire minute. His face expressing shock and sadness for you. “That’s… I’m so sorry that happened to you… What a shitty friend. What happened after?”

“I came here to Korea. I couldn’t stay in the same city as her anymore... After that day, my friend completely ignored me. She pretended I didn’t exist, and the guy would give me dirty looks whenever he saw me. I got over him but losing someone I had known almost my whole life was hard, so I moved here to start fresh.”

He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, clearly not knowing what to say before he replies, “I’m sorry for assuming…”

“It’s fine, but Baekhyun, I do want you to know that it gets easier. At first, it seems like you’ll never move on, then days will go by where you never think of that person. Before you know it, it doesn’t hurt to think about them anymore. You’ll get through this, and you’ll be stronger in the end.”

Baekhyun processes your words before responding. “It would be better if I didn’t see it all the time. That’s the only time I feel like I can’t move on. I picture what it would be like if it was me with her, and then I hate myself because I want nothing but happiness for Chanyeol and her. Hanging out with other people has helped a lot, like spending time with you and Jia. It’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It’s just, kind of, like ‘oh, that hurts a little, but I’m fine’. If that makes sense.”

You nod. “Well, if you ever want to escape for a little while, you can call me, and we can hang out. You can use my apartment as a little, private sanctuary anytime.”

Baekhyun smiles, and it’s the first genuine smile you’ve seen from him in over a week. “Thank you, that means a lot, and thank you for sharing your story with me. You’re a really good person, Y/N.”

“I know.” You tease him.

Baekhyun laughs abruptly and shakes his head a little. As he goes to reply, the storage room door suddenly opens, and you see Jia standing there with an innocent look on her face.

“Oh. Did the door get stuck?”

You immediately stand up and walk over to her, ready to get out of this room. “Stuff it, Jia.”

“How is this my fault?” She turns toward you as you walk past her.

“Get the heavy boxes behind the door? Really?”

Jia’s drops the innocent act, and by the look on her face, she knows she’s busted. Baekhyun walks out of the storage room and up to Jia.

“Jia, please stop trying to push Y/N and me together.”

“I wasn’t – “

“Jia.” He stops her, giving her an “I know the game you’re playing” look. “Please. I’m asking you to leave it alone. Let me figure things out. Okay? And please don’t ever lock me in a room again.”

You raise your hand and chime in. “Oh, I second that.”

“Babies.” Jia rolls her eyes and turns back to Baekhyun. “I’m sorry, Baek. I just want you to be happy, even if you are a pain in my butt.”

Baekhyun immediately steps back at her audacity. “A pain in your butt?! You’re joking, right?”

“Psh. I’m not a pain. I’m a joyful, loving angel.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you lying was a sin?” Baekhyun throws back at her.


	6. Part 6

Literally, one hour left, you just have to make it through this one hour of work, and then you are home free, you thought. Jia and you had been bored out of your minds all day. The shop was extremely slow, and you had caught up on all your work, but your manager didn’t want to let the two of you go home in case it miraculously picked up. It got so bad that the two of you had begun searching for things to do, so you were extremely happy when Chanyeol’s girlfriend dropped by.

You visited with the two girls for a little bit, but you eventually excused yourself to give them some privacy. The two of them were so close that you still had moments of feeling awkward around them like you didn’t belong there. They would tell you it was nonsense for you to feel that way, but you couldn’t help it.

Deciding you had been gone long enough, you head back up to the front of the shop to find the girls. What you find instead is something you desperately wanted to avoid. Jia was being Jia and informing Chanyeol’s girlfriend about Baekhyun’s feelings. As soon as you hear the topic of conversation, you attempt to backtrack and get the heck out of there, but Jia sees you first.

“Y/N! Come here!”

“No. Jia, no.” You instantly say. “I don’t want any part in whatever you’re planning.”

Jia rolls her brown eyes at you. “I’m not planning anything. Just come here, please.”

You stare at her wearily and then slowly walk over to the two of them.

“All I was doing was telling her about Baekhyun’s feelings. I just want you to confirm what I’m saying.”

You immediately feel annoyance wash over you. “Jia, you told Baekhyun you would stay out of it after he asked you to leave it alone.”

“I know, but don’t you think she has the right to know?” Jia asks you.

You look over at Chanyeol’s girlfriend, taking in her expression. She was wearing the same look on her face that you had become extremely familiar with, the “what did you do now, Jia” look.

“Jia, did you tell Baekhyun you’d stay out of it?” She quietly asks, attempting to take everything in.

“I did, but I think you talking to him could help him move on.” She defiantly replies.

You stood as still as a statue. Would talking to her help Baekhyun move on? Or would it cause him more pain? Would this be a horrible thing that blew up in your faces, or would it help him get closure? Geez, I’m becoming as bad as Jia, you chastise yourself. He asked for her to stay out of it. Maybe that meant he wanted you to stay out of it too.

“I don’t know…” Chanyeol’s girlfriend says, looking down at the ground.

“I think it would.” Jia states. Turning towards you, she asks, “What do you think?”

“I think I’m staying out of it.” You answer her and then look at the other girl. “You guys know him better than I do, so you talking to him is something that you’re gonna have to decide on your own… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You’re sticking up for what you believe, and you’re respecting his wishes. Thank you for doing that.” She pauses. “I don’t know if me talking to him about it would be the best idea, but I’ll think about it. Anyways, I’m assuming you’ll both be at their dorm tomorrow, right?”

The EXO boys were having a little gathering with friends to celebrate various projects they have been working on. Junmyeon’s musical, Kyungsoo and Sehun’s drama, and a couple more things that had already slipped your mind. They wanted to do something with friends, so they figured why not come up with a reason, or five, to have a get-together.

“Yepp, we’ll both be there!” Jia responds, answering for you.

Not long after that, Chanyeol’s girlfriend leaves, and your manager finally takes pity on you. He was allowing you to leave early, which was a rarity at your work. As you are nearly running out the door, Jia finally asks you the question you knew she had been dying to ask.

“Are you mad at me?”

You sigh. “No, I’m not mad at you. I know, in your own way, that you’re trying to help Baekhyun, but he’s right. He’s gonna move on when he’s ready, and not any other time before that. I’m just worried that if she talks to him, it’ll make things worse for him…”

“I hadn’t thought of that…” Jia quietly says, a worry line creasing her forehead.

Once you get home, you couldn’t have been happier. It had been a long, boring day, and you wanted nothing more than to chill out and eat junk food while binge-watching Netflix. Just as you had changed into sweats and plopped down on the couch, your phone dings with a message.

Baekhyun: Looking for an escape, you free??

Your heart briefly flutters. You had hoped Baekhyun would take you up on your offer, but you really weren’t 100% positive he would. You reply to his text with your address, knowing he would take that as a yes.

Baekhyun: See you in a bit…

Glancing around the apartment, you begin to feel slightly panicked. This was the first time anyone besides Jia would be seeing your apartment, and this wasn’t just anyone. This was someone you had growing feelings for. Maybe I should pick up a little, you wonder, but you didn’t know what to pick up. The apartment was pretty clean since you and your brother were often gone at work.

As if your thoughts magically summon him, your brother walks in the front door. You quietly watch as he sets his briefcase down and stares at the table for a minute. His tall frame slightly hunched over.

“You okay?” You ask, concern growing in you.

Your brother physically jumps at your voice. “Aish! You scared the crap out of me! I didn’t even see you sitting there.”

“I see that. You seem pretty spaced out. What’s up?”

Your brother walks towards you and sits on the chair next to the couch. “I’m just exhausted. Work was hectic, and I have a dinner meeting to go to in about an hour. I just came home to get some quiet for a little bit.”

You could hear the tiredness in his deep voice, and you begin to feel worry over your brother’s health. He had been working so much that you hardly ever saw him, and you missed him.

“Stop. I see where your head is going, and I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” He stops your thoughts, knowing you all too well. “Anyways, how have you been? I haven’t had a chance to talk to you in a while.”

You shrug your shoulders. “Just been working and hanging out with friends.”

“That Jia girl? She seems entertaining.” He flashes a smile while leaning back into the chair.

“Hang out with her for a day, and then tell me how you feel.” You immediately respond, causing your brother to chuckle.

“Alright, alright. Any boys you’re talking to?”

You groan into your hands. “Please don’t do that protective big brother thing.”

“Hey. That is my right as a big brother. You can’t take it away from me.”

You sigh, not really knowing how to tell him your feelings without letting the whole story come out, but you know your brother won’t stop until you tell him what he wants to know. “There may be someone, but I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?”

“It’s, kind of, complicated, on his end…”

Your brother nods like he understands what you’re saying without saying it. “Ah… Have you heard from… anyone back home?”

You smile, knowing this was your brother’s way of gently prying. “No. No one from back home.”

“Good.”

You watch as he gets up to get ready for dinner. As he begins to walk down the hallway, you say, “You know that someone I was talking about? He’s on his way over…”

Your brother, who had completely disappeared from view, suddenly backtracks and turns towards you. “I’m sorry… What was that, that you just tried to casually slip in?”

“Don’t make a big deal about this.” You say, looking up at the ceiling.

His lack of response has you meeting his cautious gaze. “I don’t… need to tell you… to be safe, right?”

“Oh my god! It’s not like that. Just go get ready for dinner.”

He squints at you and then turns back down the hallway, grumbling an “it’s not like that yet” not so quietly under his breath, causing you to roll your eyes. Sometimes you forgot that your brother was only three years older than you.

Not long after your talk with your brother, there’s a knock on your door. You get up to get it and realize you’re still in sweats. Crap. Maybe I should’ve changed. Shoving the thought aside since it was too late to do anything about it, you open the door and greet Baekhyun.

“Hey, come in.” You say, smiling.

“Hey Y/N, how are you?”

“Good, good.” You usher him inside and shut the door.

Nearly 10 seconds later, your brother comes from around the corner, startling Baekhyun. You roll your eyes, knowing he had probably already been ready but wasn’t leaving the apartment until he got to meet the boy you were crushing on.

“Baekhyun, this is my brother. He’ll be leaving in a few minutes, so don’t mind him.”

Your brother raises his eyebrows at your tone. “Woooow, thanks for that nice introduction, brat.”

You watch as he turns to Baekhyun and sticks out his hand. While they shake hands and exchange names, you feel something weird in your stomach at the sight of your brother and your crush talking to each other.

“Have I seen you somewhere before? You look familiar…” Your brother curiously asks.

Your eyes widen, and you realize you completely forgot that Baekhyun was a popular member of the “nation’s boy group”. Although, you highly doubt your brother even knows what an EXO is. Then again, stranger things have happened.

“I think I just have one of those faces,” Baekhyun responds with a shrug.

Your brother nods his head like that made complete sense, and you turn your head to keep yourself from busting out laughing at his blatant lie.

“Alright, I gotta take off. It was nice meeting you, Baekhyun. Please, make yourself at home.” Your brother politely says, then turns to you. “I’ll be gone for a couple of hours, you know how these things go. Have fun.” He wiggles his eyebrows at you, then, for Baekhyun’s benefit, adds. “But not too much fun.”

You stare at the door as your brother shuts it, hearing Baekhyun chuckle in the background. That little shit, just wait until I get him back.

“Your brother seems cool.”

“Oh, does he? Hmm…” You grumble, causing Baekhyun to laugh more.

You head back to your spot on the couch, and Baekhyun follows your lead, sitting down on the couch with you. Since he left about a foot of room between the two of you, you pull your leg up on the couch and turn your body towards him.

“So, what brings you to my humble abode?”

“I was actually debating on asking you if you wanted to hang out today, and then Chanyeol told me his girlfriend was coming over, so it made the decision easy.”

You quickly stop the feeling of sadness that had begun to course through you. That’s exactly what you had told him to do.

“Well, I’m glad you took me up on my offer.” You say, giving him a small smile.

“I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out and play PUBG before that, though!” He replies, noticing the dejected look you were trying to hide.

You give him a blank stare. “PUB what?”

“PUBG.” He stares at you with wide eyes. “You don’t know what PUBG is?”

You stare back at him, eyes just as wide. You were taken aback by his sudden passion over whatever he was talking about. “I don’t… I’m sorry…”

“I have to show you this game! You’ll love it, trust me.”

“Okay, we can do that… but first, have you eaten? Because I haven’t, and I’m starving.”

He thinks about it. “Actually, no, I haven’t eaten since breakfast…”

“Well, that settles that.” You say, getting up and walking into the kitchen.

Baekhyun follows you and quietly watches as you go through the cupboards. You notice a growing smile on his face, spiking curiosity in you.

“What?”

“Are you going to cook for me?”

You pause and then begin closing the cupboard. “Did you want something specific? I can order takeout?”

“No, no, no. Please continue.” He says while rushing towards you. “I just didn’t know you could cook…”

“Well, I’m no professional, but I can put a few meals together… Did you want to help?” You ask him curiously.

Baekhyun nods. “But you’re gonna have to tell me what to do.”

The two of you end up cooking a decent looking meal, and, to your immense pleasure, it was actually really good. How awkward would it have been if I screwed up the first meal I make him, you thought.

After the two of you eat enough to be satisfied, you tell him you’re gonna do the dishes before he makes you game all night. When he offers to help you, you greedily accept it because you absolutely hate doing the dishes. When he offers to wash while you dry, you swear you almost hear angels singing. This man was pure heaven.

“I feel bad that you’re washing the dishes, but I’m also very happy that it’s you and not me. Does that make me a bad host?”

Baekhyun laughs. “It’s okay, I offered. Think of it as payment for feeding me.”

You guys are flying through the dishes until the water from the faucet sprays off a lid Baekhyun was washing, soaking the front of your clothes. Both of you freeze in place in surprise. The sound of the water running is the only noise in the apartment until you shout at him.

“Byun Baekhyun!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He shouts back as he frantically looks for a dry towel.

But you had other things in mind. Cupping your hands under the faucet, you gather a pool of water and toss it at Baekhyun when he turns back around. He stands there in stunned silence, eyes falling closed in disbelief.

“I don’t think… you know what you’ve just done.”

You knew exactly what you just did, and since his eyes were still closed, he couldn’t see that you were re-filling your hand with water. When he finally opens his eyes, you surprise him again.

“Oh, you little brat! It’s on!” Baekhyun runs over to the sink and splashes the dishwater at you.

“Ewe, Baekhyun, that’s dirty! At least I used clean water for you!”

If that was how he was gonna play it, then it was indeed on. You look around for a weapon that would cause maximum impact. Spotting a glass on the counter, you make a break for it, but Baekhyun was on to you.

When you get to the counter, he is almost directly behind you. You quickly grab the cup before he can get his hands on it and turn around to head back to the sink. Baekhyun stops you in your tracks when he grabs onto the counter, his arms on each side of you, efficiently trapping you between his body and the hard surface.

When your bodies press together, you both freeze. You had soaked his shirt enough that it clung to the front of him, giving you a glimpse of the rock-hard abs that you could feel against you. You tentatively make eye contact, the playfulness that ran through you both gone.

When Baekhyun slowly leans towards you, your breath hitches in your throat. Without a second thought, you lean towards him and meet him halfway.

Your lips touch softly at first, both of you feeling the kiss out. When you feel Baekhyun’s hand come up and gently cup the back of your head, you begin to put everything you have in the kiss, and Baekhyun meets you head on. After a moment, he pulls away and stares at you with wide eyes.

“Y/N…” He takes a step back, pulling his hands away from you, and leaving you with a cold feeling. “I should go… I’m sorry…”

He walks towards the door, and when his hand hits the handle, you break from your trance. You pull away from the counter, about to walk over to him. “Baekhyun…”

“I’ll call you. I just… I’ve gotta go… Sorry…”

You watch as he walks out of your apartment. You continue to stand still in the kitchen, lips tingling, clothes wet, and utterly confused.


	7. Part 7

You smooth your hands over your dress for what feels like the 20th time. As you get out of the elevator and head for the dorm, your anxiety spikes to a new level. Nervousness didn’t really cover the amount of emotion you were feeling. You were working yourself up so much, you worried you’d make yourself sick. Good grief, I need to calm down. This isn’t even that big of a deal. You tried to tell yourself.

“Y/N… Y/N, are you okay? And would you leave your dress alone! You’re gonna smooth out the pleats!” Jia scolds you.

You look down at your dress. The what? You examine the skirt, assuming the “pleats” were what the bunched-up fabric was called. To you, it looked like an open accordion in a dress style. The dress was beautiful and in a shade of deep purple that complimented your skin tone beautifully. The bodice was flat, with purple gems around the sweetheart neckline, and the pleats flared out at your waist. You wore the dress to your high school graduation and brought it with you to Korea on a whim.

“I’m sorry… I’m just nervous.”

“Why are you nervous? You’ll be fine.”

You hadn’t told Jia about the incident in your kitchen last night. You hadn’t kept it from her because you didn’t trust her, but because you still had no idea what had even happened yourself. Baekhyun and you had kissed, and it was a damn good one at that, but he had feelings for someone else. Didn’t he? What did it mean? Did he kiss you spontaneously? Or was it something that had been on his mind? It had definitely been on your mind.

You had tried to call him afterward, but his phone went straight to voicemail. You also sent him a couple of text messages, but they all went unanswered. Baekhyun had kissed you, apologized, and was now ghosting you. Again. You had a feeling the next time you talked with Baekhyun, it was not going to go well for you.

Jia knocks on the door, causing you to jump a little. She looks over at you with a suspicious look on her face, but before she can grill you, Junmyeon opens the door, saving you from a conversation you didn’t want to have.

“Hello, ladies! Don’t you two look wonderful tonight?” He moves out of the doorway, allowing you in. He was wearing a white button-down shirt with black pants, and his hair was a little shorter than the last time you saw him.

“You look great too, Junmyeon!” You compliment him, causing him to beam a bright smile at you.

“I think you might be one of my new favorites.”

You smile, his words causing some of the tension that had built up in your shoulders to release. Looking around, you realize there aren’t too many people here, but there is a good amount that you didn’t know.

Turning to Junmyeon, you ask, “Who are all these people?”

He looks around at the guests. “Oh, some are dancers, some are actors, and then there are SM employees. Just a few close friends.”

You are momentarily stunned at how he just casually drops he was friends with actors until you remember that he was in EXO and that they were famous in their own right.

“Hey babe, you’re finally here.” Jongin’s voice makes you turn around. You watch as he walks up to Jia and pulls her into his arms. You were extremely happy for the couple, the two seemed to be made for each other, but it also reminded you of your unfortunate love life, or at least your lack of one.

You notice that Jongin was followed by Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, and just like that, you spend the next 20 minutes greeting members and being introduced to so many people, you had already forgotten half of their names. There was only one person you had yet to talk to, but you could clearly see him across the room. Baekhyun had made eye contact with you multiple times, causing your heart to start beating irregularly, but as soon as you would look at him, he would immediately look away.

At first, you didn’t know how to feel about it, but the longer it went on, the more annoyed you became. I know he does not think he’s going to avoid me all night, you thought. There was no way you weren’t going to talk about what happened, so when you were finally away from everyone, you made your move.

He was standing off to the side of the balcony door, talking to Yixing, which relieved you. At least it was someone you knew. Yixing spots you coming and smiles at you, a dimple popping out. Baekhyun had his back to you, so he had no idea who was approaching until Yixing says your name.

“Hey Y/N!” Yixing greets you, causing Baekhyun to stiffen.

“Hi Yixing, do you mind if I borrow Baekhyun for a little bit?”

“He’s all yours.” Yixing smiles and walks away. You call out a thank you and wait until Baekhyun turns toward you. When he finally does, his eyes widen fractionally as he takes in your dress. Good. You had been curious as to what he would think about your outfit.

“Hey…”

“Hey…” He responds, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Can we talk?” You ask.

He slowly nods, knowing he couldn’t avoid you forever. He tilts his head in the direction of the hallway, indicating for you to follow him. You had never been in this area of the dorm, so you glanced into the rooms as you passed them, noticing this was where their bedrooms were. Baekhyun stops midway down the hallway and slowly turns toward you.

“I’m sorry…” He gets out before you can open your mouth, causing whatever you were going to say to fly out of your mind.

“What are you apologizing for?”

“The kiss, and also for ignoring you afterward.” He immediately answers. His words triggering a small sting in your heart, but you suck it up and ignore it.

“You don’t have to apologize. Just talk to me. What’s up?” You ask, needing to know what he was thinking.

He looks at the wall to your left and takes a deep breath. “I’m just… confused. I don’t know…” His eyes trail down to the floor, and your heart begins to beat faster.

“What are you confused about?” You quietly ask.

“My feelings.” He responds. You stay quiet, waiting for him to elaborate. When he looks back at you, your breath leaves your body. “I wanted to kiss you. I wanted to see what it was like… and now, I don’t know. I don’t know what I want or how I feel.”

Your mind was blown. Baekhyun had wanted to kiss you? Something that you had thought was spontaneous was actually something he had been wondering about? You were gonna have to process that information later.

“Okay… what do you want from me?” You ask, not sure what you were supposed to do now. You didn’t want to pester or push him into anything. You wanted him to figure out his feelings for himself, but you needed to know what he wanted you to do to help him with that.

“Maybe a little space? I don’t want anything to change between us, but I think it would help me sort everything out… It’s not just you. I want space from her also.”

You knew the her he was referring to was Chanyeol’s girlfriend, so you nod. If space was what he was asking for… then you would give it to him.

“Alright… well, you let me know when you have things figured out.”

You turn and walk away, not wanting to be in front of him anymore. You would give him the space he asked for, only because you didn’t know what else to do.

“Y/N…” His voice stops you, and you turn back to look at him. “Are we okay?”

“I’m not going to hold your feelings, or your confusion about them, against you, Baek. We’re fine.” You pause. “But I want you to know that I don’t regret that kiss in the slightest.”

When you emerge from the hallway, you don’t know what to do with yourself. Your heart was beating almost painfully fast from the flood of emotions you were feeling. You were ecstatic that Baekhyun had wanted to kiss you, hurt that he had ignored you, confused because he was confused, and now you had to patiently wait for him to figure out if he liked you or not, which was likely to drive you up a wall.

“Y/N! Can you settle something for us?”

You turn to see Minseok and Jongdae standing in the kitchen looking at you. Thankful for the distraction, you wander over to the pair, wondering what they want.

“I can try? What do you guys need to be settled?”

“Which do you think is better? Kimchi soup or hot pot?” Jongdae asks you, with an incredibly serious look on his face.

You stare at them for a moment. You’ve grown used to the members bickering and debating about random things. It seemed fun to them, and it made you laugh, so you just let them go.

“I haven’t had hot pot before, so I don’t think I can give a fair opinion.”

Both of their jaws drop, and you try to hold back a laugh at the looks on their faces. After a moment of shock, they both begin talking at the same time.

“Excuse me?”

“I suddenly feel very bad for you…”

“Thanks?” You question, not sure what the big deal is.

“How have you not had hot pot yet?” Minseok asks. When you shrug your shoulders, he continues. “Seriously, is Jia even showing you restaurants? That should’ve been the number one thing on the list.”

“That may be a little dramatic… but we have to fix this. You have to experience hot pot.” Jongdae tells you, not willing to take no as an answer.

“Okay?”

Your conversation with them carries on for another 10 minutes before both men excuse themselves, leaving you in the kitchen alone to collect your thoughts. You could finally have a minute by yourself to just think about everything that has happened since you walked through the door.

It had only been about a minute or so before a couple of voices drifted to your ears, and you knew who those voices belonged to immediately. Chanyeol’s girlfriend and Baekhyun, and from the sounds of it, they were having a private conversation just outside of the kitchen.

You suddenly become very anxious. This was so not where you wanted to be. You absolutely did not want to hear their conversation. Whether it was Baekhyun telling her the same thing he told you, or if he was telling her something else. Whatever the situation, you did not want to hear it.

You also realized that if they walked into the kitchen and found you just standing there by yourself, they would probably think you were in here listening to their conversation. How would you even explain that? Especially now that you’ve heard parts of what they were saying.

“– and that was the reason I wanted to talk to you privately.” Baekhyun had been saying.

“Baekhyun… I thought you told me you were over me? That it was just a little crush, and you’d be fine?” She questions him.

“I did.”

“I mean, besides what you just told me, that’s not what I’m hearing…”

You hear Baekhyun scoff and knew what he would say next. “I’m guessing Jia told you?”

“It doesn’t matter who told me. Baek, you’ve gotta move on… it’s been months. You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

“I know, and I – “

You hear a new voice add into the mix, causing Baekhyun to stop talking.

“What’s going on over here?” Sehun asks curiously.

“Hey, Sehunnie. What’s up?” She asks with a light voice, trying to bring the focus on the conversation they were having to something else.

“Oh, I’m just going to the kitchen. Don’t mind me.”

Crap. Crap, crap, crap. You have got to be freaking kidding me. Your heart starts beating triple time, and it is insanely loud in your ears. Sehun was coming in here, and he was going to see you awkwardly standing there by yourself.

You were about to be so busted, and you were a terrible liar, so if he asks you what you are doing, you are quickly going to out yourself. You stare at the door with apprehension, and when Sehun walks through, you thought you were gonna fall over from your lack of breath.

When Sehun sees you, he jumps a little. “Y/N, you scared me! Geez.”

All you could do was stare at him with wide eyes, and shake your head, hoping he’d figure out that you didn’t want them knowing you were in there. He looks at you, confused by your actions and your vigorous head shaking.

You glance toward the doorway and notice the complete silence out in the hallway. She and Baekhyun had heard Sehun address you, and now they knew you had overheard their entire conversation. You look back at Sehun and plead with your eyes, but then stop. You didn’t even know what you were asking him to do. How would he know?

“Did you get the drinks?” Sehun asks. Your head snaps up to him, and you feel relief flood through you. He had given you an opening, and you were incredibly grateful.

“I couldn’t remember what you told me…”

“Let me help.” He smirks and walks over to you, whispering, “You are so explaining this later.”

You nod, and once Sehun and you grab some random drinks, you follow him out. As soon as you walk around the corner, you make eye contact with Baekhyun. Damn it. He was staring at you with unreadable eyes and furrowed brows. You turn your attention to the back of Sehun’s head and attempt to keep the guilty expression off your face.

Once you and Sehun hand out the drinks you randomly grabbed, he takes you by the arm and pulls you to the corner of the room.

“What was that? Why did you just look like a frightened baby deer when I called your name?”

You look at him helplessly, not even knowing where to start, but he has no problem with getting it out of you.

“Does it have something to do with Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s girlfriend?”

You nod. “I was in the kitchen, getting a moment to myself, and before I knew it, they were having a private conversation, and I was standing there stupidly with no way out. I panicked, and I didn’t want them to think I was spying on them.”

“How did you know it was private?” He asks curiously.

You didn’t want to tell Sehun too much since Baekhyun asked you not to tell anyone about his dilemma, so you give him a vague answer. “It just seemed private…”

Sehun’s eyebrows furrow and he hums in thought.

“Thank you, though. For helping me and asking questions later. I didn’t know how to get out of it…”

“Well, I couldn’t just leave you there. You looked like you were about to attach yourself to my leg and start begging.” You look at him in bewilderment. “I’m just kidding with you.”

You didn’t know if you were overreacting or not. It wasn’t like you were purposely standing there, actively trying to listen to what they were saying. You were just in the kitchen trying to find some peace and quiet. If they wanted to have a private conversation, they should’ve checked to make sure that no one was in the kitchen in the first place.

Although… it didn’t really help that Baekhyun had asked you for space earlier. He probably thinks you were trying to hear what he was telling her. You turn your head towards the kitchen subconsciously and see Baekhyun leaning against the wall, watching you. Oh, god, was your first thought. Your second thought was, what right does he have to make leaning against a wall look that good?

“Y/N! There you are! I was looking for you.” Jia’s voice rings in your ear.

“I’m taking that as my cue to leave. Try not to spy on anyone else.” Sehun teases.

“Sehun, I – “

“I know, I know. I’m just messing with you.” He laughs. “Take a deep breath. You’re fine.”

“So, about the birthday party next weekend. I was thinking us girls could all get ready together? Does that sound okay with you?” Jia says, pulling your attention back to her.

Your mind has to race to keep up with her. The birthday party she was talking about was for Chanyeol’s girlfriend. It was her 25th birthday, and everyone was going out to some club that was known to be frequented by idols. The thought of getting ready with her after she just found out you were listening to her conversation made you want to skip the party altogether.

Plus, you would be at a club with Baekhyun, the girl he likes, and her boyfriend. Honestly, your head was starting to hurt from all of this, but she had become your friend, and you weren’t going to miss her party, no matter how much you might want to. You mentally sigh.

“Yeah, sounds great.”


	8. Part 7 (Baekhyun's POV)

Baekhyun was nervous as all hell. He couldn’t stop watching the door, knowing you were going to walk through it at any moment. He had spent the night before and the entire day today avoiding your calls and texts, but he knew you were going to talk to him tonight, whether he was ready or not.

He was so confused about everything. He had liked Chanyeol’s girlfriend for so long that his feelings for you came out of nowhere. All he knew was that he liked to spend his free time with you and be in your presence. Whenever he thought of something funny during the day, he wanted to text it to you first before anyone else. Whenever he had something exciting to share, it had been you that he wanted to share it with. He didn’t know how you had become so ingrained into his life, and in such a short time, but you did it.

It had never really been that way with Chanyeol’s girlfriend. Yeah, he wanted to share everything with her and spend time with her, but it was always Chanyeol that told her first, or that was always with her. You were so different from her, but then sometimes eerily similar. That’s part of what was confusing to him. He loved your friendship, but did he want to be more than friends with you? Was he transferring his feelings for her onto you just because there were some similarities between you two?

And what did he even feel towards Chanyeol’s girlfriend anymore? Why was he holding onto something that he had let go of long ago? He only felt certain feelings for her when he saw happy moments between her and Chanyeol. Was he just searching for a relationship like that? Was that why he latched onto her?

Baekhyun was so confused, and he just wanted a break from all of it. Maybe that’s it, he thought. Maybe, I should just stay away from both of them for a while? That way he could figure out his feelings one way or another. He had to figure them out sooner rather than later. He was pulling you into his mess and making himself miserable. Maybe he should’ve figured it all out before he kissed you…

Ugh, that kiss. Why were you such a good kisser? Baekhyun didn’t know what had come over him last night. He was having such a good time with you, and your laugh was making him feel certain things. He had decided at that moment that all he ever wanted to do was make you smile and laugh.

Chasing you around was fun, but when he trapped you against the counter, any game the two of you were playing was over. He couldn’t get himself to look away from your lips, and the feel of your body against his nearly drove him crazy. That kiss was probably one of the best kisses he had ever had, and one he replayed over and over in his head ever since it happened.

It was his exit that he didn’t want to remember. When he had pulled away from you, all his thoughts came crashing down on him. How could he kiss you when he didn’t even know how he felt? He didn’t want to lead you on or drag you further into his mess, but that was exactly what he did. So, he left. He left and ignored you, and now he was about to come face to face with you.

“You look great too, Junmyeon!”

Baekhyun’s head snapped up at your voice. You were here, but he wasn’t ready to tell you that he wanted space, so like a coward, he stayed away from you. He watched you throughout the night, but whenever your eyes found his, he looked away. What in the hell am I doing? Why am I acting like this? Baekhyun rolled his shoulders and walked over to Yixing, who was always able to calm him down.

They had only been talking for a couple of minutes before Baekhyun saw Yixing’s eyes drift over his shoulder. He smiled at someone behind him, and when Yixing greeted you, Baekhyun froze. This was it. There was no avoiding it now.

“Hi Yixing, do you mind if I borrow Baekhyun for a little bit?” He heard your soft voice ask.

“He’s all yours.” Baekhyun waited while Yixing walked away, and then he slowly turned around.

What he saw nearly put him on his ass. You looked absolutely stunning. He had never seen you in a dress before, but suddenly that was all he wanted you to wear from now on. Purple was 100% your color. He tampered down his emotions and tried to hide his sheer delight for your outfit from his face. He had to remember what he was going to do, and it was going to be better for both of you in the long run.

“Hey…” You quietly said.

“Hey…” He responded, rubbing his neck out of nervousness.

“Can we talk?”

Baekhyun nodded at you and had you follow him down the hallway towards his room. It would be more private there than in the corner of the living room. Just when he was about to get to his room, he realized that was probably not the best place to have this kind of talk, so he stopped in the middle of the hallway and decided right there was good enough.

He didn’t really know how to say what he was about to tell you, but he surprised even himself when he turned around and blurted out “I’m sorry”.

You paused for only a moment before you pushed down whatever you were about to say. “What are you apologizing for?”

“The kiss, and also for ignoring you afterward.” Though he was absolutely not sorry that he kissed you, he did feel bad about not responding to anything you sent him.

“You don’t have to apologize, Just talk to me. What’s up?”

He looked away from you and took a deep breath. “I’m just… confused. I don’t know…”

“What are you confused about?” You quietly asked.

“My feelings.” He said. When you didn’t respond, he met your stare head-on. This was it. “I wanted to kiss you. I wanted to see what it was like… and now, I don’t know. I don’t know what I want or how I feel.”

Your eyes widened at his confession, and you looked pleasantly surprised before you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion.

“Okay… what do you want from me?” You timidly asked him.

What did he want from you? He had no idea anymore… That was the whole point of why he had to do what he was about to do. “Maybe a little space? I don’t want anything to change between us, but I think it would help me sort everything out…” He didn’t want you to think it was just space from you, so he quickly added that it was space from both of you. “It’s not just you. I want space from her also.”

You began to nod while contemplating his words. “Alright… well, you let me know when you have things figured out.”

You turned to walk away from him, but something about it didn’t feel right to him. This wasn’t how he wanted to end the conversation.

“Y/N… Are we okay?”

You looked back at him, and he felt his chest tighten a little. Even though he just told you he wanted space, he couldn’t help but admire your beauty at the same time.

“I’m not going to hold your feelings, or your confusion about them, against you, Baek. We’re fine.” You paused. “But I want you to know that I don’t regret that kiss in the slightest.”

His breath hitched as you walked away, and he suddenly wanted to follow you very badly. You never really indicated how you felt about the kiss one way or the other, so your confirmation that it was as good for you as it was for him, inflated Baekhyun’s self-esteem like a hot air balloon. He looked down at the floor and smiled before he could stop himself.

He stood there for another minute before he made his next move. He had to find Chanyeol’s girlfriend and have this conversation all over again. He sighed and began to walk down the hallway. When he got back into the living room, he did a quick scan, looking for her. She was staring out the balcony door, and Baekhyun jumped at the opportunity once he realized she was alone. He walked over to her and gently tapped her shoulder.

“Can we talk? In private?”

She looked at him curiously but nodded her head. Baekhyun turned and walked away, heading towards the deserted hallway by the kitchen. Here. This would be good enough. Once he got far enough away from everyone, he listened for any sounds that would indicate someone was in the kitchen, and was satisfied when he didn’t hear any.

He turned to look at her and realized that his heart didn’t pound like it used to. She was still absolutely gorgeous, but his blood wasn’t racing through his body when he looked at her. That only confirmed his thoughts that she may just be a comfort to him.

“What’s going on, Baekhyun?”

“I needed to talk to you and get some things off of my chest.”

She peered at him cautiously. “Okay, shoot…”

“I’ve been harboring feelings for you, even though I told you I would move on. I didn’t want these feelings because you and Chanyeol are my best friends, but I couldn’t stop myself. Every time you were around, I felt slightly jealous of Chanyeol, and that just made me miserable.”

She went to speak, but he stopped her. “Please, let me finish… Recently, I’ve been feeling differently… You’re not on my mind daily like you used to be... I’ve been thinking about someone else and spending time with someone else, but I feel like with you always around me, it’s making it harder for me to figure out how I feel towards her. I think you’re more like a comfort blanket to me, but I need to be sure… I just want a little bit of space from you, and that was the reason I wanted to talk to you privately.” Baekhyun finished.

She was quiet for a moment, a weird mix of shock, disappointment, and hope on her face. “Baekhyun… I thought you told me you were over me? That it was just a little crush, and you’d be fine?” She questioned him.

“I did.” He told her that in the past so that she would move on with Chanyeol and be happy. At the time, it had been a lie, but now… maybe it was the truth.

“I mean, besides what you just told me, that’s not what I’m hearing…”

Baekhyun scoffed. He knew Jia wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut about this. He shouldn’t even be the least bit surprised. They were best friends after all. “I’m guessing Jia told you?”

“It doesn’t matter who told me. Baek, you’ve gotta move on… it’s been months. You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

Well, that was exactly what he was trying to do. “I know, and I – “

“What’s going on over here?” He heard Sehun ask from behind him. He immediately stopped talking. There was no way he wanted anyone to know about this conversation. He watched as Sehun walked into the kitchen, and he looked back at the woman across from him. He was just about to quietly wrap up this conversation when he heard Sehun speaking to someone.

“Y/N, you scared me! Geez.”

Baekhyun froze. Y/N? You were in the kitchen? You had been in there this whole time, not saying a word or making any noise? He waited to hear you say something, to verify that you were actually in there. Sehun asked you a question, and when Baekhyun heard your soft voice respond, he closed his eyes.

You had to have overheard the entire conversation he just had with Chanyeol’s girlfriend. The parts about him not moving on and the part about him possibly being interested in someone else. Baekhyun sighed. There was a reason he wanted to have this talk in private. Maybe you hadn’t heard everything? Maybe, you were doing something on your phone that had your attention instead?

When Sehun walked out of the kitchen with you trailing behind him, your eyes automatically met. He searched your expression, and when he found you trying to clear the guilty expression off your face, he knew you had heard everything. He turned and watched you walk down the hallway, waiting to see if you would look back at him, but you never do. His attention was pulled away from you when he heard Chanyeol’s girlfriend speak.

“I think you know what you really want, Baekhyun… You just need to stop fighting it and making excuses.”

He turned and looked at her. Maybe she was right. Maybe he did know what he wanted.


	9. Part 8

*TW: Assault*  
______________________

“We have 30 minutes left until we need to go, ladies! Let’s get a move on, so we can get our groove on!”

You pause in your mascara application and look at Jia through the mirror. “Our groove on? I think you’re a few decades behind with that saying.”

She rolls her eyes in response and sarcastically replies. “Okay, let’s go get lit!”

You inwardly cringe at her choice of words and share a look with the other girl in the room. “You know what? You say whatever your heart desires.”

You finish coating your eyelashes with mascara and put down the tube. Sitting back, you examine your look. Not bad. Not bad at all. Your hair was up in some type of messy knot that Jia did for you. You had pulled out some tendrils to frame your face, but you mainly left it alone. It was going to get hot and sweaty in the club, so there was no point in putting on too much makeup and leaving your hair down. You planned on dancing the night away and forgetting any problems that you had.

Over the past week, you had honored Baekhyun’s wishes for space. You hadn’t seen or talked to him since the party EXO had at the dorm. He had texted you a couple of times, which you vaguely responded to, but nothing other than that. You missed him. You missed his friendship. You missed his laugh. His voice. His smell. You didn’t know how this man, who you had only known for a couple of months, had gotten so far under your skin.

Pulling at the straps of your halter top, you wonder if you’ve done too much. You had on the black, silk top, tight blue skinny jeans, and black knee-high boots. You liked the ensemble, it made you feel like a badass... like you could kick butt and take names.

“You look great.” Chanyeol’s girlfriend says, almost reading your thoughts.

Things hadn’t been as awkward as you thought they would be when the girls arrived at your apartment earlier. You had been worrying whether she would say anything to you about overhearing her and Baekhyun’s conversation last week, but she never did.

It wasn’t like she didn’t have the opportunity to. She had seen you at work multiple times this week, and now she was in your apartment, but she never brought it up. Which was absolutely fine with you, you didn’t want to talk about it either.

“You’re the one that looks great, birthday girl.” You tell her, admiring the navy-blue dress that hugged her in all the right places. She paired the dress with strappy silver heels, and she looked beautiful. As did Jia, in her gray, cold-shouldered shirt, black skinny jeans, and combat boots.

“Honestly, you two. Chanyeol and Jongin are going to be speechless when they see you.” Baekhyun probably will be too, you bitterly thought.

You couldn’t help yourself, you wondered if Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s girlfriend had talked to or seen each other over the past week. He said he wanted space from the two of you, but you were sure she had gone to the dorm and seen Chanyeol at least once this week. You glance over at the girl and shake yourself from your thoughts. Why were you feeling jealous of her? She doesn’t even want to be with Baekhyun. She’s with Chanyeol.

“I hope I make Jongin speechless tonight,” Jia winks at you.

“Jia…” You groan.

“Oh stop. You’re a grown-ass woman, you know what sex is. Alright, girls, let’s go have some fun!” Jia berates you and then walks out of your bedroom.

As you follow her out to the living room, you say, “Of course, I know what it is, but that doesn’t mean I want to think about you and Jongin doing it.”

“Doing what?” Your brother asks, causing you to jump.

“Nothing. I didn’t know you were home?” You quickly change the topic. The thought of talking about sex with your brother creeped you out. You were both adults, but still, there were some things better left unsaid.

“Just walked in the door.” He says while looking the three of you over. “…and you three look like you’re going to be out causing trouble tonight.”

Jia points at the other girl, beating you to an explanation. “It’s her birthday. We’re all going out to celebrate!”

“Ah, well, happy birthday. You three be safe and careful tonight.” He says, immediately going into big brother mode.

“Always,” you tell him.

He smirks at you. “You say ‘always’, but you forget we grew up together. I know exactly how you are. Also, if you don’t mind me playing big brother, who are you going to be with?” His question causes the girls to smile and makes you feel grateful that you have a sibling that cares enough about what happens to you.

“Our boyfriends and friends will be there,” Jia answers, grabbing her purse and walking over to the door.

Your brother looks back at you for a moment in curiosity. “Is Baekhyun going to be there?”

The two girls stop what they are doing and look at you. Thoughtfulness in one’s eyes, and confusion in the other. You knew that Jia was going to pounce on that topic the first second she could.

“Yeah, he’ll be there…”

“How do you know Baekhyun?” Jia asks, walking back over to you and your brother.

Your brother looks between the two of you and then answers. “He was over here last week.”

“Why was Baekhyun here last week?” She quickly responds.

You sigh, exasperated. “Because we’re friends, Jia.” Why does she have to question every time you are with Baekhyun? It’s like she’s your mother.

“Yeah, friends that got the entire kitchen wet. Still waiting for an explanation on that by the way.” Your brother outs you.

“I told you, we were doing the dishes.” You turn and grab your purse, ready to end this conversation.

Your brother pauses. “Right. Dishes.”

“Okay! We have to go. We’ll be safe. I’ll call you if I need anything. Love you, bye!” You call out, while physically pushing the girls to the door.

You take a glance at their faces. Chanyeol’s girlfriend has a small smile on her face, and Jia looks suspicious. You mentally sigh, knowing you were about to get grilled for the entire car ride.

________________

You’re in awe as you walk into the club. The place is massive and there are people tucked into every nook and cranny in the building. Colorful lights are flashing purples and blues in every direction and a DJ booth sat on the far wall. A wooden balcony surrounds the entire building, giving a hint to the private second floor, and dance music is blaring through the sound system. You feel Jia take your hand and allow yourself to be pulled up the stairs to the balcony, which you find out is the VIP section.

You tightly grip Jia’s hand as nerves flow through your body. You were about to see Baekhyun for the first time since he asked you for space. Would he talk to you? Ignore you? How was this night going to play out?

When the three of you walk up to the tables, you hear greetings and happy birthdays from the boys and various other people you don’t recognize. Your eyes immediately find Baekhyun, and what you see causes your heart to fall into your stomach.

He was standing to the side of the booth, wearing a delicious all-black ensemble, and looking over Chanyeol’s girlfriend from head to toe. You couldn’t tell if he was admiring her, or what he was doing, but you had no interest in watching it longer than you had to.

You turn towards Jia just in time for her to drop your hand and greet her boyfriend. You see her wrap her arms around Jongin’s neck and kiss him with an intense passion you could usually find at a club. Awkwardly standing there by yourself, you suddenly get a weird sense of not belonging, until you feel someone pull you by your hand into a booth.

Looking down, you see Yixing smiling at you and pulling you into the seat next to him. You instantly feel an invisible weight lift off your shoulders and smile at him. When Sehun drops into the spot next to you, you feel grateful and accepted in some weird sort of way.

Once you got your drink, you made small talk with the boys next to you. You tried not to pay any attention to what Baekhyun was doing, but you kept sneaking glances at him. You saw him talking to various people, looking down at his drink in thought, and watching the crowd of people dancing below, but you never once saw him look at you. It hurt more than you wanted to admit.

You watched him glance at the birthday girl multiple times, and that was when it finally hit you. He must’ve figured out he still had feelings for her, and not you. That’s why he couldn’t stop looking at her.

You gulp down your third drink and welcome the burn. Out of your peripheral vision, you could tell that Sehun and Yixing both noticed something was wrong with you, but you ignore them and order another drink. This time accompanying it with a shot.

Once you are good and buzzed, you want nothing more than to dance the rest of the night away. You begin wordlessly pushing at Sehun to get him to move, and when he finally gets up, you slide out of the booth.

Jia looks at you with concern in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m gonna go dance, come with me.” You slightly slur, pulling her arm before she has a chance to say anything.

You walk past the rest of the group and vaguely hear something along the lines of “she’s drunk”, but you don’t care. You don’t care what they’re thinking right now, and you don’t care when Baekhyun moves to stand in front of you. He opens his mouth to say something, but you walk right past him. Whatever bad news he was going to share with you could wait.

Jia and you make it to the dance floor and dance together for nearly 45 minutes. With all the bodies being pushed together, you were sweating out the alcohol, and unfortunately becoming clearer headed.

You close your eyes and let the music pulse through you, feeling free and alive. When hands grab your waist, your first thought is that it’s Jia, until you realize how rough and hard they are. You open your eyes and turn to look behind you. Your gaze, at first, meets with a solid, hard chest, but when you look up, you see the eyes of a total stranger.

The man was big, with firm muscles, and was at least 190 cm tall. He had dark hair that was slicked back and greasy looking and patchy facial hair. His eyes were so dark, they were nearly black, and he was smiling down at you like you were his next meal. This man was frightening, and you didn’t want to be within 50 feet of him, let alone have him touching you.

You wordlessly untangle yourself from his hands and move away from him, looking for Jia. As you attempt to get away from him, he grasps the back of your shirt and pulls you towards him again. He roughly grabs your hips and grinds himself into the back of you. The feeling makes you sick to your stomach, and you quickly scan the crowd looking for Jia or a familiar face, but you see no one.

You pull his hands away from you again and turn towards him, an irritated expression on your face. “I’m not interested in dancing with you, so stop touching me.”

“Do I look like I care?” He says, smirking. He begins to reach for you again and you instantly get pissed off. You didn’t know how a Korean girl would handle this, but you weren’t from Korea, and this dude was about to get throat punched.

“I’m not gonna tell you again, asshole. Don’t fucking touch me.” You shove his hands away from you, and turn around, making your way through the crowd. All you wanted was to get to the stairs and get back up to your friends. Back to a feeling of safety and away from this fucking creep.

Just as you are about to clear the dance floor, you feel a push from behind, and then you are being grabbed and pulled towards the bathrooms. Panic begins to set in. You knew exactly who it was, and once he got you out of sight, you didn’t know who would be able to help you. You were already almost out of your friends’ sights, and you didn’t want to know what this man had planned for you.

You begin to push and punch at the arms that were securely wrapped around your waist, but the guy was easily the size of three of you, and there was no way you were going to get free of him yourself. You yell at the people next to you for help, but the music is too loud for them to hear you, or they were too drunk to figure out what was happening.

The man roughly pushes you into the wall near the bathroom, causing the paneling to dig into your shoulders. You look up into his narrowed eyes and feel fear course through you. The sneer on his face looked like a normal expression for him, and you got the sense that this was not the first time he has done something like this.

“What the fuck are you doing?” A loud voice says from behind the creep.

You look past the man in front of you and meet familiar brown eyes. You almost weep with relief at the sight of Baekhyun, and when you look behind him and see multiple EXO members, you finally release the breath you’ve been holding.

“I’m minding my own business like you should.” The man spits at Baekhyun.

“I highly suggest you get your fucking hands off of her.” Baekhyun bites out. The look on his face was radiating pure anger. He was pissed off, and if he had any chance of taking this creep out, you got the feeling he would’ve tried.

The man holding you snorts. “What the fuck are you gonna do, pretty boy?”

At that moment, Chanyeol runs up with a worried expression on his face and two security officers in tow. They immediately pull the guy off you, and the man starts spewing curses.

“I wasn’t doing anything wrong! We were just talking!” He shouts as they take him somewhere down the hallway.

You tune him out and slide down onto the floor. The panic and fear you had felt, left you feeling utterly exhausted. Jia runs over to your side and immediately pulls you into a tight embrace.

“Oh, thank god! I’m so glad you’re okay! I lost you for, like, two seconds and you went and found trouble. That’s gotta be a record.”

You laugh, but it sounds more like a sob to you, and you squeeze her as hard as she’s squeezing you. You feel Baekhyun come over to your right side and kneel by you, his cologne a calming scent. He reaches out and rubs a soothing hand on your back.

“Are you okay?”

You nod in Jia’s arms, not trusting your voice enough to speak.

“Y/N…” Baekhyun says, while gently pulling you from her arms. He lightly grabs your face, forcing you to look at him. “Are you okay?”

You meet his gaze, seeing concern, fear, and relief. You take in his expression, his gentle hands on your face, and his familiar smell. In that moment, you finally feel safe, and tears begin falling down your cheeks. Baekhyun wordlessly pulls you into his arms and cradles your head against him.

You don’t know how long you stay like that, but eventually, Baekhyun pulls you up off the floor. With his arms wrapped around you, he says, “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”


	10. Part 8 (Baekhyun's POV)

TW: Assault  
__________________________ 

One hour.

There was only one hour left until Baekhyun was going to see you.

Of course, you three had to show up late to the party. Jia swore the birthday girl had to be the last to arrive, which Baekhyun didn’t understand, but he learned not to question her. There was no point in trying to argue with Jia. She was one of the most stubborn people he had ever known.

Baekhyun was excited to see you. He hadn’t seen or heard from you since the party he and the boys threw. He had texted you a few times, but you weren’t willing to give him much conversation. It drove him nuts, but it was 100% his fault. He was the one who asked for space, which he immediately regretted by the end of the night.

After you had overheard his conversation, you avoided him like the plague, or maybe you were avoiding him because he asked you to. Baekhyun really wasn’t sure at that point. He had stopped himself three times from going up to you that night to talk to you. You looked like you were having fun talking to the other guys, and Baekhyun wanted to be a part of it. He almost wanted to take back his “let’s have space” request, but he decided to stick to his words, and just watched you have fun instead.

He spent the whole next week deciding what he was going to say when he saw you, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was trying to figure out what to wear to the club to impress you. That was where he was at in life.

After his conversation with Chanyeol’s girlfriend, he sat down and worked through his thoughts and feelings. He had figured a few important things out, which relieved him and lifted some weight off his shoulders.

He had moved on.

Truthfully, he had moved on weeks before, but he was still holding onto that comfort that she used to provide him. It wasn’t anything she was doing, it was wishful thinking paired with loneliness on his part.

When you came into the picture, he was so hung up on the idea that he liked someone else, that he never gave you a fair shot at building anything with him. Yet somehow, over time, you wormed your way into his thoughts and feelings, and now you were completely nestled in them. Which was exactly how Baekhyun wanted it. Once he realized that he had moved on from Chanyeol’s girlfriend, it opened him up to realize another thing.

He wanted to be with you.

He wanted to start over with you and give the two of you a fair shot. There was undeniable chemistry between the two of you, Baekhyun had felt drawn to you almost immediately, and he wanted to see where that chemistry would lead.

He was almost positive that you felt the same way, which is why he was so excited to see you tonight. He wanted to tell you all this and see where the night would take the two of you. He felt happy and when he looked at Chanyeol, he finally didn’t feel guilty. That was how he knew he was on the right track.

Over the next hour, Baekhyun watched the entrance of the club, waiting for your arrival. He didn’t know how he was going to play it when he saw you. Should he tell you right away? Should he give you a little time to get comfortable before springing all these realizations on you? He also wondered if you were mad at him for asking for space…

A crowd of people moved by the door, catching his attention, and his eyes instantly found you. Nerves started flowing through his body as he watched the three of you climb the stairs up to the VIP. Even though you were farther away, he could see the amazement on your face. You looked around at the lights and the people dancing, and Baekhyun figured this was your first time at a Korean club.

As the three of you walked up to the booths, he took you in. Your hair was pulled away from your face, showing off your skin that was glowing from all the lights. Your cheeks were rosy, but Baekhyun didn’t know if that was from walking in the tall ass boots you were wearing or blush. The jeans you were wearing looked like they had been poured onto your body and made specifically for you. You looked like a badass. A very sexy badass.

He heard shouts of happy birthday and finally tore his eyes away from you. Looking over to Chanyeol’s girlfriend, he smiled and shouted out a “happy birthday”. He watched as Chanyeol pulled her into a hug, and felt nothing but happiness for them, confirming his thoughts.

When he glanced back at you, you were sitting down in the booth with Yixing on one side and Sehun on the other. Baekhyun was a little sad that there was nowhere for him to sit by you, so he leaned against the railing and looked down at the people dancing on the first floor. He would have to wait for an opportunity to talk to you.

He occupied himself by talking to friends around him and watching the dancer's moves below. Whenever he would look at you, you would be talking to one of the guys or staring down at your drink. You had yet to even glance his way, and he tried to ignore the pang he felt because of it.

His eyes moved over to Chanyeol and his girlfriend. They were laughing about something with Junmyeon and Minseok. Baekhyun studied her, evaluating his feelings. Yep. Nothing. He only felt friendship and comfort when he saw her. No love or lust or romantic feelings, just like he thought. He smiled down into his drink. He was relieved that he could finally let her go and move on with someone new.

Movement caught his eyes and he looked over just in time to see you pushing Sehun out of the booth. Sehun was looking at you like you were nuts and Yixing was about to reach out and grab your arm, but you were already out of the booth. You stumbled a little when you stood up and Jia went over to you and asked if you were okay. You looked like you had a good buzz going on, and Baekhyun could tell he wasn’t the only one who thought that. There were a few looks of worry as you said you were going to go dance.

There was no way he wanted you to go down there alone, and he took little comfort in the fact that Jia was going with you. He moved to step in front of you, hoping to get your attention and maybe stop you from going down there until you were slightly less intoxicated, but you flat out ignored him. You moved around him like he was just an obstacle in your path, not even making eye contact. He turned as you walked by and watched you continue over to the stairs, Jia trailing behind you.

Baekhyun leaned over the railing and watched you dance for what felt like an eternity, and he was beginning to wonder if you would ever come back up. He wanted to go down there with you, but he didn’t know if he would be recognized as a member of EXO or not. He knew the people down there were drunk, and they might not even realize it was him, but them being drunk could also cause them to act aggressive or who knows what. Frustrated, he stayed in the VIP area and watched your every move. This would have to do for now.

However, that was short-lived when he saw a man come up behind you and start dancing with you. You made no move to stop him at first, and Baekhyun immediately felt jealousy start filling his body, but when you moved away from him, he relaxed. Until the man roughly grabbed your shirt and pulled you towards him again.

Baekhyun went statue still, trying to make sure that what he was seeing was really happening. His eyes zeroed in on your face and your hands as you pushed the aggressive guy off. You looked irritated, and Baekhyun knew that you wanted no part in dancing with this man.

Before he realized it, Baekhyun was walking to the stairs. He saw that you had turned to go towards them, and he wanted to meet you there and see if you were okay.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, he looked down them, expecting you to be walking up. When he didn’t see you, he immediately looked back over the railing at the spot you had been occupying. You were nowhere to be seen, and neither was the man that had been bothering you. He scanned over the other clubbers and people standing along the walls, but he couldn’t find either of you.

His mind instantly went to whatever sick thoughts that man was probably thinking and he began to panic. Frantically, he walked back to the booth and shouted at everyone until he got their attention. The guys quickly took in his wide eyes and wondered what the heck he was yelling for.

Junmyeon approached him, instantly going into leader mode. “Baekhyun, what’s wrong?”

“I think something happened to Y/N. There was a guy, and they were dancing, and she pushed him off, but he came back, and then she was pissed off and now they’re gone.” He quickly rambled, causing even more confusion.

Junmyeon stopped him and calmly said, “Baekhyun, you need to slow down. You’re talking too fast, and I can’t understand you.”

Frustrated, he grabbed Junmyeon’s arm. “I think some man just grabbed her. I lost sight of her after she pushed him away, and now I don’t know where either of them went.”

Junmyeon must’ve realized the situation, because his eyes widened fractionally, and he turned towards Chanyeol. “Chanyeol, go get security and meet us downstairs.”

“What’s going on, hyung?” Sehun asked, standing up.

“I’m not exactly sure, but Y/N could be in serious trouble. We need to go down there and find her.”

Baekhyun didn’t stick around long enough to watch the members get up from the booth. He knew they would follow him. His main priority was finding out where you went. He took the stairs two at a time and headed off in the direction he had last seen you in. He heard Jongin somewhere behind him asking where Jia was and began wondering the same thing. He hadn’t seen Jia either...

He almost slowed down, thinking maybe the two of you went off somewhere together, and that he had rallied the troops for no reason, but that thought was instantly wiped from his mind when he saw her towards the edge of the crowd.

She was turning around, obviously looking for you, and Baekhyun knew his first thought was correct. He half jogged over to her and turned her to face him.

“Where’s Y/N?”

“I don’t know! She was right freaking behind me and then she wasn’t.”

He let her go and craned his neck to look around. If that guy did take you somewhere, they were quickly running out of time to find you. He started to push his way out of the crowd, towards some seats. If he could get higher, maybe he’d see your head.

Once he broke free of the crowd, he turned towards some chairs on his left, and fate must’ve been on his side today because the man was straight in front of him.

He could see him facing the wall in the hallway, and just behind him was you. Baekhyun could see that the man had you pushed up against the wall, and the look of fear on your face made his blood boil. He quickly walked over to the guy, not even bothering to check if anyone was behind him. He didn’t care. You needed help and he was going to give it to you.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He loudly said, hoping to get the attention of the people around them. He felt Junmyeon come up on his right and the others behind him, but he had no intentions of taking his eyes off you.

He could see the relief cross your face, and he instantly wanted to beat the fuck out of this guy for ever making you scared like this. If the man didn’t look like a giant weightlifter, Baekhyun would’ve already punched him in his ugly face.

“I’m minding my own business like you should.” The man barely turned his head toward Baekhyun, apparently deciding he wasn’t worth his time.

“I highly suggest you get your fucking hands off of her.” If he didn’t let you go in the next five seconds, Baekhyun didn’t care how big the man was, he was going after him.

The man holding you snorted. “What the fuck are you gonna do, pretty boy?”

That was enough for Baekhyun. He picked up his foot to move forward and then he saw Chanyeol to his left. Chanyeol ran up with two security officers and Baekhyun released some of the tension he was holding, but he wasn’t going to feel relieved until that man was out of there. He watched as the security officers grabbed the man and pulled him away from you. The guy was yelling about something, but Baekhyun wasn’t giving any of his attention to him.

He watched as you slid down to the floor and Jia ran up to hug you. You looked exhausted and panicked, and Baekhyun wasn’t sure if he should approach you or not. Would you want any guy to come up to you and touch you right now? Or would you be afraid?

He waited, trying to make a decision that would respect you. When you tried to laugh, he couldn’t stand there any longer. He had to see if you were okay. Slowly, he walked over to you, not wanting to move too fast and frighten you. He met Jia’s eyes and she, almost unnoticeably, nodded her head. He took that as a hint that it would be okay.

He crouched down next to you, and very gently put his hand on your back. When you didn’t flinch or pull away, he also took that as a good sign.

“Are you okay?” He quietly asked you. You nodded in Jia’s arms, but that wasn’t enough for him. He needed to hear you speak. You couldn’t put on a front with him if you spoke. He gently pulled your arms away from Jia and turned you towards him.

“Y/N… Are you okay?”

You looked up at him, fear and shock still in your gaze. He stroked your cheek, attempting to calm you down, and when tears started falling down them, he pulled you into his arms and held you. He finally released any tension he had in his body and let relief that you were safe fill him.

He held you, on the dirty floor of the club, for who knew how long. The others looked on quietly, worry in their expressions, and Baekhyun figured it was time to get you home.

With his arms wrapped around you, he pulled you up from the floor and slowly began walking to the door. Away from the club, the onlookers, and the disgusting man who had dared to touch you.


	11. Part 9

The second you walk out of the club, you take a deep breath of the fresh air. You could still hear the muffled music and feel the vibrations tingle your skin, but you were no longer feeling suffocated by throngs of people. You were outside on the sidewalk, watching cars and people go by, not one of them having a clue of the traumatic event you just went through. The arm wrapped around your shoulders was the only thing keeping you grounded.

Looking over to your left, you see Baekhyun searching for a cab. You appreciated the thought, but you didn’t want to feel locked in a tight space at the moment, you needed to be free.

“Baekhyun…” You croak, lightly tugging at his shirt with your right hand.

His head immediately turns to you and you can see the worry in his eyes. “Hmm? What do you need?”

“Can we walk somewhere? I just… I don’t want to…”

He begins to nod and pulls you into his body, turning you away from the street. You could tell he didn’t know what to do, but that he wanted to help you in any way possible. Truthfully, you didn’t know what to do either.

“How does a park sound?”

A park? Somewhere quiet and relatively free of people? Perfect. That’s how it sounded. You nod your head and allow him to lead you to the park. The two of you walking in silence until Baekhyun quietly asks you a question.

“Are you okay?”

Were you okay? That man had terrified you. You had never been put in a position like that before, and the total lack of control you felt had caused panic and helplessness to course through you. If Baekhyun hadn’t been there... If your friends hadn’t noticed…. You shudder at the thought, causing Baekhyun to hold you tighter.

No. No, you refuse to let that creep hurt you this way. He already took enough from you tonight, you weren’t going to allow him to take more.

“I’m not okay… but I will be. I’ll be fine.” You answer him, and quietly repeat to yourself, “I’ll be fine.”

Baekhyun stays silent for a moment, and then he softly says, “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, but if there is, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

You nod, appreciating him more than he could ever know. The two of you quietly walk into the park, and normally a park at almost 1 am would freak you out, but you felt safe with Baekhyun. You keep walking until you find a bench and then both of you, silently agreeing, sit down on it. You instantly look up to the sky to find comfort in the stars, forgetting about the light pollution this area of Korea had.

That was always how you had calmed down at home, looking at the constellations and feeling smaller than an ant for a moment. It saddened you that you couldn’t see them, and their magical patterns.

“Can you see the stars back home?” Baekhyun curiously asks.

You smile. “Yeah, I didn’t live by a super big city, so you could see a lot of them. I used to find quiet, grassy places and look up at the sky for hours.”

Baekhyun smiles at your words. “That sounds really nice. I wish you could see them right now... You know, there are some places around here where the air is much clearer, you just have to know where to look.”

“Really? Where?” You nearly bounce in your seat, excitement washing over you.

“That’s my secret, but maybe I’ll show you one day.” He teases, lightly bumping your shoulder with his.

“I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.”

The smile on his face widens. “I have no doubts.”

The two of you enjoy the companionable silence until a thought pops into your head. You didn’t want to think about what had just happened, but you were curious.

“How did you know?”

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Baekhyun visibly tense, and you knew he knew exactly what you were talking about.

“I was watching you,” he quietly answers.

You look over at him in surprise. “You were?”

Nodding, he says, “I saw him dancing with you, and at first, I thought you were okay with it, but then I saw you push him off. When you started going to the stairs, I went over to meet you, but you never showed up. When I looked again, I couldn’t find you and I freaked out.”

You stare at him with your mouth slightly agape. Baekhyun had been watching you? So many thoughts ran through your head at once, that you could barely keep track of them all. Why had he been watching you? Hadn’t he been watching Chanyeol’s girlfriend?

…He had been watching out for you without you even knowing it.

Then it hit you. He could’ve just saved your life. None of you knew what that man was going to do. He could’ve killed you, and because of Baekhyun, he never got the chance to do anything. Suddenly thank you didn’t seem like enough, but it was a good place to start.

“Thank you, Baekhyun.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Y/N.” He says while shaking his head.

“Yes, I do. I absolutely do. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if…”

When you let your sentence trail off, Baekhyun turns his body towards you. “Hey… It’s alright. I’m saying you don’t have to thank me because I care about you, and I would do it 1,000 times over if I had to.”

You quickly wipe at the tear that had decided to fall without your permission, and look down at the ground, trying to calm yourself. There was no point in worrying about “what ifs”. That would just work you up even more.

Looking back at Baekhyun, you see him discreetly rubbing his arms for warmth. It didn’t seem that cold to you, but maybe you were still hyped up on adrenaline, or numb. Regardless, you didn’t want him out here freezing.

“You don’t have to stay out here with me, Baek. You can go home.”

He shakes his head. “I’m fine. Besides, I’m not leaving until I know you’re safe at home.”

It was your turn to shake your head at his stubbornness, but you were also extremely grateful for his decision. You didn’t really want to go home yet, and the thought of being alone was something you weren’t ready for.

“You’re really not gonna touch on the fact that I said I care about you?” He softly asks.

You consider his question for a moment. You were friends, so it made sense that he cared about you, right? “I mean, friends care about friends… at least last time I checked?”

“No. I mean, yes, but that’s not what I meant.”

You freeze at his words. “Then what did you mean?”

He sighs. “Honestly, this seems like a terrible time to say anything, but since I’ve already brought it up, I might as well finish it…”

You look at Baekhyun, eyes searching his face, refusing to let hope blossom until you heard what he had to say.

“I was so excited to see you tonight,” he starts, a small smile gracing his face. “I couldn’t wait for you to walk into the club, so I could finally tell you how I was feeling.”

Realizing you were unconsciously holding your breath, you force some air into your lungs. Were you ready to hear this? “Well… how are you feeling?”

He meets your eyes with determination. “I’m over her. I’ve been over her. I was just holding on to something that was never there, and in doing that, I didn’t let anything happen between us. I never even gave us the possibility of a chance… and I would really like to…”

Your mind was reeling, and a smile was forming on your face before you could stop it. He didn’t full out say he liked you, but the fact that he wanted to give the two of you a chance was enough.

“I’m really happy for you, that you’re finally able to let go and move on… and I would love to give whatever’s between us a chance.”

A smile breaks out on his face. “Really?”

You nod, happiness flowing through you at the thought of potentially having a relationship with Baekhyun. Those feelings were temporarily stunted when you see Baekhyun visibly shiver. It was time for him to get inside, and if he wouldn’t leave until you left… then it was time for you to go.

“Can you take me home now?”

“Are you sure? We can stay longer?” He offers.

“No, I’m finally ready to go home.”

He quickly jumps up from the bench and holds a hand out for you. “Thank god. I’m freaking cold.”

Laughing, you accept his hand and he pulls you up. “I would just like to point out that I told you, you could go home.”

He immediately imitates you, while you watch with amusement.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Maybe.” He grins.

While the two of you walk down the street, you notice that you’re still holding his hand. His cold, but soft hand. You smile to yourself and wonder if you will forever feel like a schoolgirl in his presence. You allow yourself to fall into thoughts of what it would be like to be with Baekhyun until he awkwardly clears his throat.

“I have a question for you…”

“I will, most likely, have an answer,” you reply with a somber face.

He smirks at your sassiness but quickly gets serious again. “Were you listening to our conversation at the party last week?”

He didn’t have to elaborate, you knew exactly what conversation he was talking about. The conversation between him and Chanyeol’s girlfriend, while you were stuck in the kitchen trying not to get caught. So much happened tonight, that you had completely forgotten that was the last time you saw Baekhyun.

“No, I swear on everything I wasn’t. I had gone to the kitchen for a moment of quiet after you told me… well asked for space. Before I knew it, the two of you were talking and I was freaking out. I didn’t want to awkwardly walk out in the middle of your conversation, but I also didn’t want to stand there and listen. Luckily, Sehun saved me… Kind of…”

He nods. “That makes sense. I didn’t think you would purposely listen to my conversations, but I had to ask.”

“No, whatever was happening between you two wasn’t my business… but I have a question for you also.”

“I will, most likely, have an answer.” He mocks, causing you to giggle.

You take a deep breath. “If you’re over her, then how come you were watching her at the club?”

His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “When?”

“Well… when we first got there, and later on, before… before everything happened…”

You watch as he tries to figure out when you’re talking about, and you wonder if maybe you had it wrong or were reading into things.

“I know that when I first saw her, I wanted to make sure I was right about moving on. I was deciphering if I was truly over her. Later, when I saw her and Chanyeol together, I knew I was right. I was happy for them, and I felt nothing but friendship toward her.”

Realization dawns on you… So, you were reading into things. “Oh… so you weren’t watching her… I guess I just assumed you were… sorry…”

He shrugs. “I understand, it’s all good.”

You pull out your phone as you near your apartment. 3:03 am. Your brother knew you’d be home late, so he was probably sleeping. At least you hoped he was. You didn’t want to tell him about what happened tonight, but you always had a hard time lying to him. He knew you too well, on top of the fact that you’re a terrible liar.

When you arrive at your building, you turn to prepare to say goodbye to Baekhyun, but when you look at him, he’s already shaking his head.

“I said I wasn’t leaving until you were safe at home, which means in your apartment.”

“Baekhyun, I’ll be – “

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” He asks, cocking his head to the side.

“No, I thought I was saving you the trouble of going all the way up there. Besides, how much trouble can I get into in an elevator?”

He begins shaking his head before you finish your sentence. “Don’t say that. The person that says that always ends up in trouble.”

You make a face at him but allow Baekhyun to lead you into your building and to your apartment. When you open the door, you take note of the dark apartment and quickly flip on the light, knowing your brother sleeps with his door closed. You glance around the room to make sure everything was where you left it. You didn’t even know why. This was your safe space, you felt protected here… You force these thoughts into your head and try to relax.

“Well, now that I know you’re home, you can finally get rid of me.”

You roll your eyes and turn to face Baekhyun. “I wasn’t trying to get rid of you.”

“Good, because I don’t think my heart could take it.” He jokingly clutches his chest, causing you to smile.

“Thanks for tonight, Baek. For all of it.”

In response, he lifts his arms and slowly pulls you into a firm hug. You wrap your arms around his waist and lay your head against his chest, finally relaxing.

“I told you, you don’t have to thank me, but you’re welcome…” he quietly tells you.

You continue to stay in his embrace, drawing comfort from him. Breathing in his scent and listening to his heart steadily beat.

“Can I take you on a date?”

At first, you freeze at the random question but then decide to mess with him a little bit. “Yeah, that sounds fun.” You say nonchalantly.

He pulls away from you and arches an eyebrow. “That sounds fun? What if I’m trying to be romantic? What kind of response is that?”

You raise your eyebrows at him. “Are you trying to be romantic?”

“Well, not now!” He whisper shouts at you. You quietly laugh, grateful for him for trying to make you smile.

“Alright, well… I guess it's time to go… I’ll text you tomorrow.” He says, slowly backing toward the door.

You watch him turn around and the complete silence behind you causes your heart to speed up. You didn’t want to be alone tonight. Yes, your brother was in the other room, but he wasn’t the one you wanted to seek comfort from. You take a deep breath.

“Wait.” Baekhyun stops and looks back at you, meeting your gaze. “Will you stay here tonight? …I don’t really want to be alone…”

His eyes quickly flick to your brother's closed door and back to you. Nodding, he says, “Yeah, I’ll stay with you.”


	12. Final

“I cannot believe you’re kicking me out of my own home,” your brother says, giving you a flat stare.

The two of you were sitting in the living room together after you had somehow persuaded your brother to leave the apartment for a couple of hours tonight. He wasn’t extremely happy about having to find something to do, but he also wasn’t going to tell you no. He hardly ever did, unless it was something that you really shouldn’t be doing.

“It’s only for a couple of hours, you’ll live.”

He snorts in response. “You haven’t even told me why. All you told me was that you had a guest coming over. By the way, who exactly is that guest?”

You stare at your brother, debating if you could get away with lying about who was coming over, and what the two of you were going to do. Knowing you, the answer was no, so you might as well fess up now.

“Baekhyun…” you mumble.

Your brother leans back in his chair and nods his head. “Ohhh, the boyfriend. Got it.”

“He is not my boyfriend.”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say.” He says, causing you to roll your eyes. “What do the two of you plan on doing?”

Before you can even respond, he jumps forward in the chair, horror widening his eyes. “Oh god, please stay off my bed. Actually, don’t even go in my room.”

Your eyes widen, and you look at him in disbelief. “Okay, gross. First, why would we do anything in your room? Second, why are we even talking about this right now?”

“Hey, some people have certain kinks.” Your brother answers you, shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh my god, please stop.” You cover your ears, not wanting to hear anything about kinks from your brothers’ mouth. That was a topic of conversation you wanted to avoid at all costs.

He chuckles. “But really, what are you guys gonna do?”

You remove your hands from your ears, and look away from your brother, knowing the exact reaction he was going to have when you tell him about your idea.

For your date, Baekhyun and you decided to do the classic “dinner and a movie” date. To help keep things low key, the two of you decided to make dinner at your apartment, instead of going to a restaurant. Considering what happened last time the two of you cooked together, you were sure your brother wouldn’t be thrilled with your idea.

“We’re gonna make dinner,” you mumble quietly.

Your brother stares at you for a second, waiting to see if you are making a joke. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard you correctly… I almost thought I heard you say you were going to cook dinner. Here.”

“That’s because you did hear me say that…”

He immediately groans and leans back in the chair again. “Do you not remember how crappy it was to clean up a wet kitchen?”

You did remember, and he was right. It sucked. After Baekhyun and you had soaked the kitchen last time, there was water literally everywhere. Your brother had come home only minutes after Baekhyun had left, giving you absolutely no time to clean up the mess the two of you had made. You remember being on your hands and knees, with two towels you had grabbed from the bathroom, trying to soak up the water. Although, your sweatpants were doing a better job of soaking up the water than the towels.

You had heard the apartment door open and looked up thinking Baekhyun had come back. Instead, you found your brother looking down at you. He had paused in the doorway, one foot in the apartment and the other still out in the hallway, as he took in the wet kitchen. You watched as he looked back out into the hallway, almost like he was debating if he should just leave and come home later, before sighing and walking the rest of the way into the apartment. He involuntarily helped you clean the kitchen, and he ended up being extremely happy when you slipped and fell on your ass. The entire fiasco was something you did not want a repeat of.

“Of course, I remember. That’s why it’s not going to get destroyed this time.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to believe you, until I come home to a clean kitchen. Actually, apartment. I don’t trust the two of you.” He informs you while squinting his eyes.

You nod your head seriously, but you had faith in Baekhyun and yourself. You could act like adults when you wanted to. Glancing at the clock to check the time, you stand up to shoo your brother out of the apartment.

“Alright, time for you to go.”

He stands up, muttering something under his breath, but walks over to the door like you asked, well more like forced. He looks back at you before opening the door.

“Please, don’t destroy the apartment, and if you do, you get to clean it up all on your own. Also, be safe, remember to stay out of my room, and I think that’s it. Have fun, sis, but not too much fun.”

You roll your eyes at his new favorite line and watch as he walks out and shuts the door. With your brother gone, you turn back toward the apartment. Now, it was time to get ready for your date. You had roughly 30 minutes before he was set to show up. That gave you the perfect amount of time to put on the short, pink dress you had laid out on your bed and a little bit of makeup. You had already straightened your hair, so you didn’t need to worry about that.

Just as you finished putting on lip gloss, there was a knock on your apartment door. You step back and give yourself a quick appraisal in the mirror before going and opening the apartment door. The sight that greeted you was something you were definitely going to catalog in your mind for later use.

Baekhyun stood there in a gray, long-sleeved sweater and dark blue jeans. His hair was tousled purposefully like it was begging for you to run your hands through it, and in his hand was a bouquet of pink roses. Your mouth fell open for a moment, both at his handsomeness and the flowers.

“You look beautiful,” he says, eyes lighting up while taking in your dress, hair, and makeup, before handing you the flowers. “Here, these are for you.”

You take the flowers from him and wave him into the apartment. “Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

Walking into the kitchen with Baekhyun trailing you, you go straight to the cupboard below the sink and grab a vase for the flowers. As you put the roses in the vase, their floral smell travels through the kitchen, helping you to calm some of your nerves.

“I wasn’t sure if I should bring some groceries or not, and I know you told me not to, but it feels wrong to show up empty-handed.”

“Don’t worry about it. I got everything we need, it just has to be put together now.”

“Did you ever tell your brother what we were doing?” Baekhyun asks, smirking at you.

“Yes, and he hopes we can act like adults.”

Baekhyun snorts at your response. “Can we?”

You look up from the flowers and see a mischievous expression gracing his face. “Can’t we?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“Okay, well, maybe this time, we don’t soak my kitchen?” You suggest.

“I mean… I don’t know…” He says, while slowly reaching for the vase of flowers you had just filled with water.

“Byun Baekhyun, I will end you if you touch that vase.”

He stops and puts his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll behave… For now.”

You look back at him and at the smirk he sends your way. That smirk makes your heart skip a beat or several. He was almost devilishly handsome, and for a second, you wanted to call his parents and thank them for creating him. You slightly shake your head and get a hold of yourself.

Bringing your hands together, you clap and say, “Alright, so, dinner?” You turn toward the refrigerator not waiting for a response from him, but that didn’t stop his voice from carrying over to you.

“I am yours to command.”

You freeze at his words, eyes locked on a carton of eggs. Was he going to be like this all night? Making small, little innuendos and jokes, you question. Because you seriously didn’t think you would make it through dinner if he kept that up.

You glance over your shoulder at him and he winks at you, causing you to quickly turn back to the refrigerator to cover the blush that was spreading on your cheeks. Baekhyun apparently was in full flirt mode, and it was something you had never prepared yourself for.

Dinner goes by fast, and with you and Baekhyun behaving, the cleanup didn’t take long either. You made it through the entire process with Baekhyun only causing your breath to hitch three times. He continued with his teasing remarks and jokes, and you mercilessly joked back, because two could play that game.

Glancing down at your phone screen, you see you have about 25 minutes to get to the theater for the movie. Putting down the kitchen towel, you turn to see Baekhyun sitting at the table, watching you. His chin resting in his hand. He looks so innocent and fascinated with watching you, that when a smile begins to spread across his face, all you can do is stare.

“Y/N?”

Blinking at your name, you tear your eyes away from his mouth. “Um… we should go… if we’re gonna go catch that movie…” You awkwardly say.

Baekhyun graces you with a smile while standing up. When he walks to the door, he turns to you and says, “Alright, but first I want to show you something.”

You tilt your head curiously, wondering what he wanted to show you, but nod your head anyways. Grabbing your black leather jacket, you follow him out the door and turn to lock up the apartment. The ride down the elevator was silent and you find yourself wondering what’s on his mind. When you walk out of the building, you notice Baekhyun begin to bite back a smile, and you follow his line of sight.

In front of your building is a borderline fancy, black car. Not fancy enough to draw eyes, but definitely worth more than what you’d make in a year at your job. Or five. Your curiosity peaks to a whole new height as Baekhyun walks over to the car and opens the passenger door. He looks back at you and slightly nods his head toward the car. Is this his car, you wonder? You didn’t even realize Baekhyun had a vehicle. You assumed all the boys were shuffled around by company vans.

Walking over, you gently sink into the leather seat. The inside of the car was stupidly nice, and almost the opposite of the outside. In here, you could tell that it was a fancy car, and it made you keep your hands intertwined on your lap. There was no way you were giving yourself a chance to break anything. You’d never be able to afford the repair costs. When Baekhyun slides into the driver seat, you look over at him with slightly wide eyes.

“Is this yours?”

“Mhmm. I don’t get to drive it often, but it’s my baby. Do you like it?”

Nodding, you say, “It’s beautiful.”

“Perfect. A beautiful car for a beautiful lady to ride in.”

His words cause you to blush, for what felt like the eightieth time, and you quickly look out the passenger window.

“So, how dead set were you on seeing that movie?”

Your eyebrows raise at his question. “What else did you have in mind?”

“You’ll see.” He replies, grinning at you while shifting the car into drive.

His response kept you quiet for about five minutes. Then, you couldn’t stand it. You had to ask where he was taking you, so you did. Unfortunately, Baekhyun was just as stubborn as you.

“Are you gonna finally tell me?” You ask for the fifth time.

“Y/N. I’m not gonna tell you. Besides, we’re almost there.”

“Well, if we’re almost there, then you can tell me.”

Baekhyun inhales a giant breath and then exhales loudly through his nose. He reaches his hand across the console and gently takes your hand in his. You bite back a grin at his bold move and feel your heart rate quicken. If this was his way of shutting you up, it might just work.

“I have some place I want to take you…” He quietly says, and then after a beat, “I want to show you the stars…”

You lightly gasp at his words and feel nerves flutter to life in your stomach. Looking over at him, you have no idea what to say. You couldn’t think of any words that described how you were feeling.

He remembered. He remembered how you wished you could see the stars…

You glance down at your intertwined hands and give his hand a slight squeeze. When he squeezes your hand back, you know he knows how you are feeling. For some reason, Baekhyun has always been able to sense what you’re feeling...

The two of you stay silent for a little bit before you felt like you had to say something. “I told you I’d get it out of you sooner or later.”

Baekhyun lets out a surprised laugh at the first words you choose to say. “I just wanted it to be a surprise…”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“Clearly,” he sassily replies.

You look over at him, his words causing a moment of worry to spark in you. If you didn’t see the smile he had on his face, you would’ve thought he was upset that you pestered him to tell you.

“We’re here.”

You turn back toward the window and take in your surroundings. You had no clue where you were, but that wasn’t a shock to you. What was a shock, was the amount of trees you found yourself surrounded by. You had been in the city ever since you arrived in Korea, and you almost forgot what it was like to be surrounded by nature.

The two of you get out of the car, and Baekhyun walks around to your side to resume holding your hand. He begins to lightly tug at your hand, saying, “Come on, this way.”

You follow him towards a trail in the trees but stop just before the tree line. “Just to be clear… you’re not a secret serial killer who lures unsuspecting girls into the woods, right?”

Baekhyun looks back at you, his mouth open at your strange question. You watch as he shuts it in thought, and then playfully asks you, “Do you think a serial killer would tell you they were, in fact, a serial killer?”

You consider his response. “Fair enough, continue.”

He shakes his head before resuming walking. “You are literally a serial mood killer.”

“I am not! I was just messing around...”

“Yes, you are. But I accept you.”

The trail was way shorter than you thought it’d be. It was probably only a two-minute walk from the car before the two of you had broken free into a clearing, on what you could only describe was a mini-cliff. There was a little, wooden bench about 10 feet from the edge, that someone must’ve bought and brought up here.

Following Baekhyun towards the bench, you look over the city and the orange haze the lights created in the night sky. That view alone was enough to satisfy you, but when Baekhyun gently tilts your head up, you gasp.

There were so many stars. Almost as much as what you saw back home. A grin breaks out onto your face when you spot some familiar constellations. You slowly turn in a circle, taking it all in. When you stop in front of Baekhyun, you give him a beaming smile, the happiness you were feeling projecting out of you. This is what you needed and what you had been craving.

“God, you are stunning,” Baekhyun says, with awe in his voice.

The smile slips from your face as he begins to walk toward you. When he stops in front of you, you look up to meet his gaze. He did this. He did all of this for you. He brought you to his secret spot and gave you the one thing you had been missing from home.

You slowly reach up and wrap your arms around his neck, feeling his arms go around your waist in response. You gently pull his head down to meet yours, his lips briefly touching yours at first. Then, slowly he begins to really kiss you, and you meet him head-on. It’s a sweet kiss. A kiss to show how much you care about each other. He pulls away, giving you a quick peck.

“Let’s sit down and take in the view.”

You nod and eagerly follow him to the bench, sitting down close enough that your thighs touch. Baekhyun puts his arm along the back of the bench behind you and smiles when you lean your head back onto his arm and look up at the sky. You feel content, even as a tear escapes your eye.

“Thank you, Baekhyun,” you whisper.

He shakes his head at you. “I wanted to do this, you don’t have to thank me.”

You turn your head to look at him. He was always saying something like that. Did he think your heart could take it? Because you were definitely starting to think it couldn’t.

“Did I ever tell you how my feelings grew for you?”

You stare at his lips as he talks until your brain catches up to the words that had left his mouth, causing you to sit up and turn to him in surprise. He told you he wanted a chance with you, but he never said he had feelings for you.

“You never told me you had feelings for me…”

He tilts his head quizzically as he looks at you. You know the moment he realizes you are right, because his eyes widen, and he scrunches his face up in the most adorable way possible. He stares at you, taking in your curious expression. Then, he slowly brings his hand up to your cheek, rubbing his thumb along your skin.

“I like you, Y/N. A lot. Probably more than I’ve hinted to you.”

“I like you too, Baek.” You tell him, lightly grabbing his hand from your face, and cradling it between your hands in your lap.

“Looking back, I realize that my feelings for you grew before I even realized I was over her. That night I asked you for space… I almost immediately wanted to take it back. I kept wanting to go find you and talk to you… Then, at the club… when I thought you were dancing with that… guy… I was jealous at first. After everything that happened that night, and the anger and fear I felt left, all I wanted was to protect you.”

Hearing all of Baekhyun’s thoughts like this was leaving you breathless. You had no idea that this was how he was feeling, and you were nearly speechless. Unconsciously, you begin rubbing the top of his hand with your own.

“I feel intense emotions when I’m around you, and I haven’t felt like that in a really long time.”

His words were making you feel all sorts of emotions, and you wanted to reciprocate even half of what he was giving you.

“Do you want to know why I was drawn to you?” You finally speak up.

He nods. “I want to know all of your thoughts and feelings. Everything that’s going on inside that pretty head of yours.”

“To me, you’re like a light. You’re warm and comforting, and you make me feel safe… But it was your smile that drew me in. That first time I saw you in the shop. You smiled and laughed at my confusion about who you were…”

“You mean, like how you had no idea who EXO was?” He interrupts you.

“Will you leave me alone about that?”

“Absolutely not. You’ll be teased about that for a long time.”

His words trigger something in you, your mind going straight to what the future may hold.

“How long?” You whisper.

“For as long as you want to be in my life.” He responds quietly.

“What if I want to be in it for a really long time?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for… I’m also hoping that you want to be my girlfriend…”

You lean back from him and attempt to play off the younger version of yourself that is squealing inside of you right now. “That’s your romantic proposal?” You tease.

His eyes widen. “Yah! You always ruin the moment!”

“I’m just kidding. Yes, I want to be your girlfriend.” You grin.

Baekhyun grins and quickly pulls you toward him, kissing you, not too gently, but not too rough either. Just right.

“I guess I can inform Sehun and Jongin their bet is over with.”

You pull away from him, almost sure you didn’t hear what you just thought you did. “Did you just say bet?”

He looks at you with wide eyes, and then he glances away before looking at you again. “No?”

“Baekhyun.”

“I don’t know what they bet. I just know they made one about how long it’d take for us to end up together.”

Amusement flows through you. Those little shits. “When?”

He snorts. “Months ago, I guess. Even the younger ones know things better than I do.”

You smile at the two youngest’s antics. You suppose this was something you’d have to get used to. A wild, caring group of men, who, you had no doubt, would end up feeling like brothers to you.

You think about everything you’ve gained since coming here. A goofy boyfriend who just happened to be one of the top artists in Korea, a sometimes-irritating best friend who loved to put you in precarious situations, and a group of friends who will have your back but will also put you in your place when you need it.

Korea had started to feel like a home to you, and though you were still figuring your life out, you found a group of great people to support you and help you along the way.

“We didn’t leave your stove on, right?”

You whip your head towards Baekhyun so fast, you nearly give yourself whiplash. “You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking…”

A wide smile breaks out on his face at your panic. “How does it feel?”


	13. Bonus Chapter

You and Baekhyun have been dating for just over a week, and everything has been going well so far. The two of you found as many opportunities to hang out as you could before the boys had to prepare for their comeback. You were excited about your first EXO comeback, but you had no idea what to expect. Every time you heard words like teasers, videos, and tours, you got excited for not only yourself but the boys and fans as well.

Jia and Chanyeol’s girlfriend had warned you that it’d be a little tough with how busy they were about to get. They also warned you about how lonely and rough it would be when they went on tour, but the three of you had promised to stick together and get through it.

Baekhyun had been nothing but sweet and caring toward you, and, so far, has done nothing but make you happy. There was just one thing the two of you had to do though... You had to tell your friends that the two of you were together.

No. You guys hadn’t told anyone yet, but not because you were being secretive. The two of you had decided you wanted to tell everyone at once, so it could be over and done with. Plus, you really wanted to see Sehun and Jongin’s reactions once their bet came to an end. Not just out of curiosity to know who won, but also so they knew you had found out about it.

Your group of friends had planned a movie night to watch one of the new Marvel movies, and you and Baekhyun thought that would be the perfect time to tell everyone.

At least, that had been the plan.

However, you were not shocked in the least when Baekhyun had informed you he accidentally told Chanyeol, who then naturally told his girlfriend. Baekhyun told Chanyeol nearly everything, since they were like brothers, so you were surprised and proud when he lasted four days. You called Chanyeol’s girlfriend after that to ask if she would keep it quiet for a couple of days, and not tell Jia, who was almost as bad as Chanyeol.

Luckily, you all had made it to movie night without so much as a peep. Neither of you had planned how you were going to tell everyone, so you didn’t know how it was going to go.

The 12 of you were hanging out in the living room of the dorm, taking every available space on the couches, chairs, and floor, snacking on various things laid out on the square table in front of you. You were sitting in between Baekhyun and Kyungsoo on one couch, directly across the room from Sehun, Jongin, and Jia who were on the other one. You had noticed the two youngest looking in your and Baekhyun’s direction, quietly talking among themselves, and you almost smirk. How many times had they done this over the past few months, and you’d been completely oblivious?

“Alright, everyone ready?” Junmyeon asks as he walks into the room with the final bowl of popcorn.

“This is gonna be so good!” Jongdae says, fidgeting out of excitement so much that you almost wanted to take away the candy he had in his hand.

Minseok looks around the room curiously. “Do you think this will top Iron Man?”

“Nothing will top Iron Man.”

Chanyeol had sounded so serious, that you glance over at him, and are surprised at the deadpan expression that graced his face. You turn to Baekhyun, eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“He takes Iron Man seriously.”

Baekhyun leans toward you and lowers his voice. “He has an actual Iron Man costume, and you don’t even want to know how much it cost.” Once those words leave his mouth, you immediately want to know how much Chanyeol had spent on this costume. A couple hundred? A couple thousand?

“I’m just saying that it could – “. Minseok begins to say, only to be cut off by Chanyeol.

“No.”

Kyungsoo sighs beside you. “You’re never gonna get him to change his mind.”

Jongdae begins to defend Minseok, “I mean, in this one – “

“Y/N and I are together.”

Everyone freezes at Baekhyun’s abrupt interruption, including you. You hadn’t been expecting him to just blurt it out in the middle of the conversation, but you knew Baekhyun didn’t want to hold it in any longer.

You glance around the room at everyone. Jia’s mouth had dropped open, Minseok had paused midway through a drink, Sehun had wide eyes, while Jongin had a smirk, and Chanyeol looked relieved that he didn’t have to hide it anymore.

“You’re dating?” Junmyeon asks, causing both of you to nod your head at the leader. “Congratulations.” He responds.

“What?!”

Everyone looks over at Jia’s exclamation. You would’ve thought someone had told her the most shocking thing ever.

“Since when?” Kyungsoo asks curiously.

You look across the room at Sehun and Jongin. “For about a week now.”

You see Jongin’s smirk widen more, and you know that he is the one who won the bet, but Jia’s shout draws your eyes back to her.

“A week?! You’ve been together a week without telling me?!” At your nod, she continues. “Who all knew?”

You and Baekhyun stay quiet, but out of the corner of your eye, you see Chanyeol slowly raising his hand, head facing down towards the ground. Internally groaning, you lay your head back on the couch, knowing Jia was either about to lose her shit or get really sad.

“Hyung, you knew? But you knew about the…”

Sehun stops talking and looks at you. You knew he was going to mention the bet, and you were fully prepared to call him out on it, but not just yet.

“She knew too!” Chanyeol says while pointing at his girlfriend.

Jia quickly turns to her. “Wait, you knew? And you didn’t tell me?!”

She looks at Jia apologetically. “I was asked not to, I’m sorry…”

This was not how you pictured this going, and before it goes south, you decide to jump in.

“Alright, everyone pause.” Once everyone is looking at you, you continue. “Yes, Baekhyun and I have been together for a week, and yes Chanyeol and his girlfriend knew, but only because Baekhyun had let it slip. I asked her to keep it quiet, so we could tell everyone together.”

“Why’d you want to tell everyone together?” Yixing asks.

“Because I wanted to be there when Sehun and Jongin found out.” You say, staring at the pair, not being able to hide the smirk that wanted to come out so badly.

“Whyyyyy?” Junmyeon drags it out while looking at them like he was wondering if he was about to scold someone.

Baekhyun speaks up next to you. “Because we heard about the bet.”

“Which apparently Chanyeol knew about also. How come you could keep quiet about that?” You look at him pointedly.

He shrugs his shoulders and meets your eyes. “I couldn’t. How do you think Baekhyun found out?”

You giggle at their honest friendship, while Jongin yells out a “hyung!”

Yixing looks between you and Baekhyun and Sehun and Jongin curiously. “What was the bet?”

Jongin sits up and looks around the room. “Well, a couple of months ago, we were talking about the odds of them ending up together… I thought they would get together sooner, rather than later. Sehun thought you guys would be stubborn, and either not get together, or take longer than you did. Which, by the way, I won.” He smirks at Sehun.

“I had a feeling I was going to lose after the club, so I guess I’m not surprised.” Sehun sighs, a disappointed look on his face.

“What did you guys bet?” Minseok asks.

“Loser does dishes for a week,” Jongin replies with a wide grin, basking in his victory.

Kyungsoo sits up in his spot, grateful to be off dish duty. “I accept.”

Junmyeon, who had been relatively quiet, looks at the two boys. “In the future, please be more careful when making bets like these.”

“Why? Nobody's feelings got hurt?” Sehun questions, looking at you for confirmation. When you shake your head, he continues. “It was harmless.”

“Yes, this one was harmless, but others might not be. What if Y/N had heard about your bet before Baekhyun had told her? She could’ve misunderstood and thought he was in on it.”

Sehun immediately says. “Well, then I probably would’ve won, soooo….” At Junmyeon’s stare, he mumbles out a “sorry, hyung.”

“Ummm, okay. Hold on a minute. Jongin. You were mad at me for attempting to get the two of them together, but you had a bet going on the entire time?” She accuses, turning towards her boyfriend with her arms crossed.

“I wasn’t locking them in supply closets, Jia.”

His remark stops whatever is about to come out of her mouth, and you laugh out loud.

“Look, I’m not mad about the bet. I just wanted to see their reactions when they found out.” You tell everyone.

“And now that everyone knows, we can be all cute and coupley,” Baekhyun adds, throwing his arm around you.

“No, you cannot,” Minseok responds.

“Be cute and coupley over there, thanks,” Kyungsoo grumbles, pushing Baekhyun’s hand off from where it had landed on his shoulder.

Yixing looks up at you from the floor and flashes his dimples at you. “I’m happy for you two. You match well together.”

“I’m so glad I don’t have to pretend to not know anymore,” Chanyeol says, relieved.

His girlfriend rolls her eyes. “it was three days, Chanyeol.”

“Three days too many,” he mumbles in response.

Minseok tilts his head curiously. “Now that I think about it, I don’t even remember seeing Chanyeol or Baekhyun over the past few days…”

“We hid in my room, so we wouldn’t tell anyone.”

You snort at Chanyeol’s response and turn to Baekhyun. “Baek, you could’ve told them…”

“I wanted to wait too, remember?” He says, kissing you on the cheek.

“Well, this is cute and all, but can we watch the movie now or…?” Jongdae says, now that he’s finally done stuffing candy into his mouth.

Kyungsoo stands up from next to you. “Actually, I think I’m gonna grab some more snacks.”

Your eyes bulge. There were already more than plenty of snacks on the table in front of you, and Chanyeol must’ve been on the same train of thought.

“More?! Why? There’s a ton on the table!”

Kyungsoo shrugs his shoulders. “Because Sehun is doing the dishes.”

Jongdae sighs and leans back into the couch. “I’m never going to watch this movie, and also, I think Yixing is asleep already.”


End file.
